Okay, I have never worked with canvas, but I now own two quick pillow kits done on painted canvas and I would like to start one, but I don’t know where to start. I’m assuming that I need to stretch the canvas somehow? I have no idea how to do this or what to buy to do it, but I’ll be going past a Michael’s tomorrow night on the way home from my Dr. Steve appointment, so if I get an answer before 5 PM, that would be great!
So, what do I need? Stretcher bars? If the design is 16 x 16 inches, how big of stretcher bars do I need? 16.5″ square? I assume that they are wooden? And I need tacks to tack the canvas to the wood? Sorry for the newbie questions, but, well… I’m a newbie. 😉
I’ve never worked on canvas before either, so I’ll be very curious to see what you do. Good luck with Dr. Steve!
I was about to give the same answer as Barbara! lol. I’ll be thinking of you and hoping you have a fruitful appointment with Dr Steve. 🙂
Got your email, I was about to send you one too! I’ll do that ASAP 😉
Yes, you do need to use stretcher bars – I’d use bars that are at least an inch bigger on each side than what your design is … or do you mean that the canvas itself is 16″ x 16″? The canvas is attached to the stretcher bars with thumb tacks, and you have to stretch the canvas very taut. It’s best to cover the edges of the ‘cut’ sides of canvas with masking tape or binding tape – that stops the threads snagging and stabilises the edges. When you use the thumb tacks you need to have them no more than an inch apart – closer is preferable (I’m by no means an expert, just done a couple to date). You could chat to Kimberley (http://kaliscreations.blogspot.com/index.html) as she’s done loads of canvaswork and can probably offer you way more tips than I could! 😀 Can’t wait to see what you’re going to be working on! 😀
A lot of people these days use stretcher bars, but I never did. I haven’t worked a canvas in years, but I always just rolled it up to the spot where I was stitching, and went from there. If you do it in hand, the canvas will soften a bit as you go along, so will get a little easier to work with.
Make sure the canvas has enough room all the way around for a framer to work with (if you’ll have it framed) when you’re done, couple inches or so on each side, just like with cross stitch. Or, if you’ll be making it into a pillow, about an inch all the way around.
Also, a lot of framers/finishers ask that you stitch a couple extra stitches all the way around to give them something to sew to.
Like Anne said, definitely put tape or something around the edges, whether you work in hand or on a frame. Helps keep it from unraveling, snagging.
Canvas almost always needs a fair amount of blocking when you’re done. It’ll skew something fierce, depending on the stitch(es) you use, but will square up again if you get it wet and pin it out to the shape it should be. I understand stretcher bars help keep the skewing to a minimum, but from what I’ve seen it still happens, especially if you use continental or basketweave for the background. Nature of the beast.
Have fun with it!
What sort of stitches are you going to use? It’s only tent/continental stitch that causes distortion, so if it’s a cross stitch canvas kit you don’t need to stretch it at all – you can do it in hand. I’ve done a big wall hanging in hand on canvas using cross stitch and it was fine.
If you’re going to use tent stitch you need to stretch the canvas so it doesn’t distort. (It may a little but dampening and stretching at the end will sort that out.) Scroll rods or stretcher bars of some sort are best. I’ve never had tacks – I sew the canvas to the fabric on the scroll rods then roll them tight 🙂
Good Luck with your canvas. I’ve done a few & don’t plan to do ANY more of them.
My advice is to take your canvas & stretcher bars to the hardware store. They have staple guns that are the cat’s meow for attaching canvas to the bars – IMO
I use a frame weight on the table to keep it still while I stitch. There are also clamps from the hardware store that do the same thing. I tend to stitch with both hands.
If you have a magnet – it helps a lot. Makes a nice needle rest.
Final tip: Mark the top of your canvas with a piece of string or thread. That way, when you pick it up again, you will know which way to ‘cross’ your stitches.
good luck & have fun!
Jenna, I always stitched canvas in hand. I used to do those pre-painted, half cross stitch pictures and they always turned out right.
Can’t wait to see what you will be doing. Hugs,
Selina
Ok trying leaving another comment Jenna, not sure why they keep getting eaten but you got my email on this I see so all is well 🙂