Tutorial for Stitchery Wall Hangings

If, like me, you love having a little hand stitching to pick up, you probably have one or more stitcheries that you’d like to do something with. I used Urban Threads designs (the joy of instant download shopping!) and stitched these, which I’ve made into small hangings with a fabric folded inner frame. Here’s how.

Recipe for hanging 18” x 11 ½”:

Centre: 1 stitchery (mine stitched from an A4 printed design, and cut to 9 ½” x 15”)
Inner Frame: 9 ½” x ¾” x 2 from dark fabric and 18” x ¾” x 2 from dark fabric
Border: 9 ½” x 2” x 2 and 18” x 2” x 2 from light or medium fabric
Binding: 75” x 1 ¼” (or cut to your own preferences)
Wadding: 18” x 13”
Backing: 18” x 13” plus 17” x 4” for hanging sleeve


Instructions:

1) Place backing (right side down), wadding, and the stitchery (face up and centred) together and spray baste if desired. It’s probably best to add any quilting to the stitchery at this point, although it is possible to do it once the inner frame and borders have been added, as I did with this example

2) Starting with the two shorter sides, fold the inner frame in half with right sides out, and place it along the edge of the stitchery. Put the border piece on top of this, and stitch down with a scant ¼” seam. You will be stitching through the backing, wadding and four layers of fabric, so feel free to take it slowly!

 

3) Repeat with the longer borders, pinning if necessary to smooth the short borders flat and straight.

4) Trim all layers to a neat rectangle.

5) Now, a decision to make. If I know that a hanging is always going to be a hanging I usually pin the pre-hemmed hanging sleeve on now, so that one long seam is sewn at the same time as the binding. If you’d rather not do this, then leave the sleeve off until step 7, otherwise hem three sides of it now and pin the long unfinished edge to match the top edge of your quilt.

6) Bind. I like to use a 45 degree cut to start, and then finish off using this cut (and three drawn lines) to work out where to cut the binding (I think that this technique was from Lynne Edwards’ Sampler Book) but everyone has their favourite methods.

7) If you haven’t already done this, stitch a simple ¼” hem around the fabric for the hanging sleeve, and add to the back / top of your hanging – if you’ve already stitched one long side in, just finish off by hand stitching that lower edge.

8) Label, hang it up, and sit back and enjoy!