How to finish cross stitch in a hoop

What you need

• The piece, washed and pressed. See how to wash cross stitch.
• A hoop that fits around the design with a little room to spare. Hoop sizes matches hoops to designs.
• Strong thread and a needle. Sewing thread, or a few strands of floss.
• A piece of felt, if you want a covered back.
• Scissors. Pinking shears slow the fraying, if you have them.

How to finish it, step by step

1. Cut the felt first. Lay the hoop's inner ring on the felt, draw around it and cut out the circle. Set it aside.
2. Center the piece. Lay it face up over the inner ring. Put the outer ring on with the screw at the top of the design, so the piece hangs straight.
3. Tighten. Pull the cloth evenly until it is flat and taut, with the design undistorted, then tighten the screw firmly, more than you would for stitching. Once the back is closed, the front cannot be put right.
4. Trim the cloth. Turn the hoop over and cut the cloth in a circle 1 to 1 1/2 inches (2.5 to 4 cm) outside the hoop.
5. Sew a running stitch around the edge. Use one long thread and leave a tail at the start. Stitch about 1/4 inch (6 mm) in from the cut edge (1), with stitches up to 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) long, all the way around.
6. Gather. Take hold of both ends of the thread and pull slowly. The cloth draws in over the back of the hoop. Stop when it lies flat and none of it shows past the rim, and knot the two ends (2).

The piece can be left like this. A gathered back holds, and it is all a piece needs if nobody will see its back.

7. Sew on the felt. Lay the felt circle (1) over the gathers. Sew around its edge with small whip stitches or blanket stitch (2), catching a few threads of the gathered cloth with every stitch.

The felt hides the thread ends and the gathers, and it protects the back. How to back a cross stitch has more on sewing felt.

The glued way, and what it risks

Some stitchers skip the sewing. They trim the cloth, run hot glue or fabric glue around the inside of the inner ring, and press the cloth into it. A felt circle can be glued on in the same way.

It is fast. The risk is that it is for good: glue is very hard to get off cloth, so the piece cannot be taken out later to be washed or framed. A gathered back comes undone by cutting one thread.

Before you choose a hoop

A hoop left on for years presses a ring into the cloth, and that mark may not come out. If you might frame the piece one day, a hoop finish is not the gentle choice. Mount it instead: see how to finish and display cross stitch.

Allow for the hoop when you cut the cloth. The fabric calculator, opened on a hoop finish, adds 2 inches (5 cm) a side: enough to hold in the hoop and to gather behind it.

Hanging it

The screw fitting at the top is the hanger. Hook it over a nail, or tie a ribbon through it. How to hang cross stitch covers hoops, frames and dowels, and hoops and frames is about the hoop you stitch in.