How to fit needlepoint into a box lid

Which kind of box

Needlepoint is stitched on stiff woven canvas, with a margin of bare canvas left all round the stitching. Every method here uses that margin, so trim nothing until the steps for your box say so.

Find your box first: the size to stitch and the work to do both depend on it.

• A wooden box with an opening in the lid. Behind the opening is a recess, like the back of a picture frame, closed by a back board. The rim round the opening, the lip, overlaps the edge of whatever is put in. Many come with glass.
• A leather box with a window. Inside the window is a sheet of adhesive under a paper cover.
• A clear acrylic box. The whole piece shows, edges and all.
• A box with a plain lid. There is no opening: the needlepoint goes on top of the lid.
• A hinged box with hardware. The canvas is sold with a metal hinged frame and is built into a box by a finisher, someone who finishes stitched pieces by hand, to order.

A box that holds the piece another way, such as on iron-on interfacing in a frame, comes with its maker's instructions: follow them.

The leather window and the plain lid put adhesive on the canvas, and that is permanent. Conservators rule out adhesive against a textile that is meant to be preserved, so a piece to hand down belongs in a wooden or an acrylic box. For an old or inherited piece, read old needlepoint before it is dampened, trimmed or put on adhesive.

What size to stitch

The size in a box's name is not always the size to stitch. A wooden box 8 inches (20 cm) across can have a 5 inch (13 cm) opening, and boxes with an adhesive window sold as 4, 5 and 6 inches square take stitching 3, 4 and 5 inches square (7.6, 10 and 13 cm). "Fits a 3 by 3 inch canvas" and "takes a 3 inch insert" both mean the stitched area: an insert is whatever goes into the box. Listed sizes are not always exact, so measure the box you have.

To turn inches into stitches, multiply by the mesh of the canvas, its number of holes to the inch. A 7 inch (18 cm) opening is 91 stitches across on 13 mesh and 126 on 18 mesh, before the rows the table adds: 95 and 130 for a wooden lid with two rows. The canvas size calculator does the sum.

If the design is smaller than the table asks, stitch the background out until it is big enough. In a wooden lid a mat, a board with a window cut in it, can cover the difference instead. A picture framer cuts it and mounts the piece under it, so take the lid and the piece along.

If the design is bigger, a wooden lid shows only what lies inside the opening: lay the lid over the piece to see what would be hidden. A leather window takes only the row or two in the table, so choose a larger box.

Before the piece goes in

The piece has to be square, with its rows of stitches at right angles. If stitching has pulled it out of shape, block it: the piece is dampened and pinned square on a board until it is bone dry. Before anything is wetted, make the test the blocking guide opens with.

For a wooden or leather box, test the size with paper before any canvas is cut or laced. Photocopy the stitched piece at its actual size, cut out the stitched area and lay it over the opening. It should leave no gap at any edge.

A wooden box: glass or no glass

Settle this before you mount the piece. Leave the glass out, or ask a picture framer to fit spacers: narrow strips, hidden under the lip, that hold the glass clear of the stitches.

Glass keeps dust and spills off the stitching, but it goes into the lid first and the piece is laid face down on it. Glass that rests on the stitches crushes raised stitches and beads, and moisture can condense where glass lies against a textile.

Needlepoint can go without glass, and a piece worked in wool is better without it. A piece without glass needs dusting now and then.

A wooden box: mounting over board

The piece is laced: strong thread runs back and forth across the back of a board, between opposite margins of the canvas, and pulls the stitching smooth over the front. Nothing sticky touches the canvas, and lacing can be undone.

Take a round or oval lid to a framer: a round board is laced another way, which these steps do not cover. Take a piece with beads or raised stitches too, because these steps lay it face down, which flattens them.

You need the box, a board, strong thread such as upholstery or carpet thread, a large needle, a pencil, a ruler, scissors, and clothespins or clips. Thin batting, a sheet of soft padding, is optional.

Many boxes come with a mounting board; some come with none. Mat board is 4-ply, about 1/16 inch (1.6 mm) thick, or 8-ply, twice that: use 8-ply where the recess is deep enough, and 4-ply for a small lid. It has to be cut straight and square to fit the recess, which is hard to do by hand. For a piece to hand down, use acid-free mat board unless the box says its own board is acid-free.

1. Open the back of the lid. Turn the swivels or clips that hold the back board in, and lift out the back board, the mounting board and the glass.
2. Check the board. Lay it in the recess. Canvas has to fold round its edges, so it needs a gap of about 1/8 inch (3 mm) at each edge: a board 1/4 inch (6 mm) narrower and shorter than the recess. If the box's board is a tighter fit, or there is none, have a framer cut one to that size.
3. Mark the middles. In pencil, mark the middle of each edge of the board. Measure each side of the stitching and mark its middle lightly on the back of the bare margin.
4. Lay it out. Lay the piece face down on a clean surface. For a padded look, in a lid without glass only, cut batting to the size of the board and lay it on the back of the stitching. Put the board on top and match the marks, so that the rows run parallel to the board's edges.
5. Fold two opposite margins over the board. First fold the raw edge of each under by more than half an inch (1.3 cm), so that every lacing stitch passes through two layers, and hold the folds with clothespins. Lacing pulls across a gap between the two margins: if they meet, trim them evenly, only until a gap is left, and leave more than 1 inch (2.5 cm) of bare canvas on every side. If you cannot have both the gap and that much bare canvas, as on the smallest lids, ask a framer.
6. Lace. Cut two long lengths of thread and knot each so that it cannot pull through the canvas. Start at the middle of one side and zigzag between the two margins to one end, each stitch about half an inch (1.3 cm) in from the fold and half to three quarters of an inch (1.3 to 2 cm) from the last. Leave the stitches loose. Work from the middle to the other end with the second length.
7. Tighten. Pull the lacing snug, stitch by stitch, from the middle toward each end. Take off the clothespins, turn the piece over and check that the rows are straight. If they are not, ease the lacing, shift the canvas and tighten again. Then fasten each end with a few small stitches into the margin and a knot.
8. Lace the other two margins the same way, across the first lacing, and look at the front again before you fasten off. Then fold each corner flat and sew it down with small stitches over its folded edge, using a new length of thread.
9. Close it in. The glass, if you keep it, goes in first with its spacers, then the laced piece face down, then the back board. If the piece sits loose without the glass, a soft layer behind the laced board holds it up under the lip. Fasten the back and look at the front: if bare canvas shows or the rows lean, lace it again. Never force a piece that will not go in easily: undo the lacing and have the board cut smaller.

The back opens again at any time, so the piece can come out to be cleaned or changed. How to frame needlepoint gives the same lacing at greater length.

A leather box: the adhesive window

You need the piece, already square, sharp scissors and a blunt table knife.

1. Trim the canvas once the paper copy has shown that the piece fits: canvas cannot be put back. Trim to the allowance in the box's instructions, without cutting a stitch. Makers ask for anything from a row or two of bare canvas to half an inch (1.3 cm): where there are no instructions, leave half an inch.
2. Lift the leather. The leather round the window lies on the edge of the adhesive sheet. Slide the blunt knife under it all the way round, just far enough to lift it. Then try the piece in the window with the paper still on: if its edges will not go under the leather, trim a little more.
3. Peel the paper off the adhesive, all of it, including what lies under the leather. If no edge will lift, score across the paper with the point of the scissors, no deeper than the paper, and lift it from the cut. Leave the paper on only where the box's instructions offer that: the tucked edges alone then hold the piece, and it can be changed later.
4. Place the top edge. Center the piece over the window without pressing it down: the adhesive is permanent. Line up the top row of stitches with the leather above it, and tuck the bare canvas of that edge under the leather with the knife.
5. Press and tuck. Press the middle down onto the adhesive, then ease the other edges under the leather, the sides before the corners, until the canvas lies flat with no folds at the corners.

A round window is filled the same way. Self-finishing needlepoint lists what can go wrong with an adhesive window and how to mend it.

An acrylic box: a backed insert

The insert is a finished panel: the needlepoint laced over mat board with thin batting under it, a second board covered in fabric behind, and a twisted cord sewn round the edge where the two meet. Self-finishing needlepoint gives the steps, as for an acrylic coaster or tray. For a box:

• Choose the cord before you stitch. Insert and cord together have to fit the inside of the box.
• Keep it thin. The acrylic boxes one finisher uses are a little under half an inch (1.3 cm) deep, so measure yours. Use one layer of batting at most, and thin cord. An insert that is too thick pushes the box apart.
• Try the front first. Lace the front and try it in the box, with the cord tucked in beside it, before the back is made. Any change of size is then made to one board and not two.

For a piece to hand down, use no glue: lace the backing fabric over its board too, and sew the cord to both halves, which joins them.

The insert usually goes in one of three ways: it slides or drops in, is held in the lid by magnets, or sits between two close-fitting pieces of acrylic. It can be taken out again.

A box with a plain lid

The needlepoint is laced over a board, and the board is glued to the top of the lid for good.

1. Cut a board from 4-ply mat board, with a craft knife or strong scissors. Trace the lid on it, cut about 1/8 inch (3 mm) inside the line, and trim until a narrow border of the lid shows all round. Cut thin batting to match.
2. Lace the squared piece over the board, with one layer of batting under it, as in steps 3 to 8 for a wooden box. The stitching has to cover the board and turn over its edge. Look before any glue goes on: if bare canvas shows on the face, add rows or cut the board smaller.
3. Glue the laced board to the lid with a strong glue that suits the lid. Keep the glue about a quarter inch (6 mm) in from the edge, so that none squeezes out. Weight it with a heavy book and leave it at least overnight.
4. Cover the join with cord. Sew a twisted cord to the edge of the needlepoint all the way round, with small stitches hidden in the twist. Tuck both ends under the edge of the needlepoint.

A box whose sides are themselves stitched is three-dimensional work, which suits plastic canvas, a stiff plastic sheet with a grid of holes.

Hinged boxes with hardware, and boxes built to order

A finisher builds a hinged box canvas and its hardware into a box with a fabric-covered base, a lining and a cord, and feet if you want them: send the hardware with the canvas. Those who build one at home work from video tutorials.

A finisher can also build a box to order round a piece that fits no ready-made one, with a needlepoint lid or sliding out like a matchbox.

Ask the finisher about extra rows before you stitch the edge: without them some of the design can be lost in the finishing. One finisher asks for one row all round, and two where beads or long stitches reach the edge. Needlepoint finishing says what to expect when a piece is sent out.