A simple way to finish your embroideries without buying any extra supplies!

Step 1: What You'll Need:

an untrimmed embroidery
backing fabric (I used muslin)
a sewing machine
embroidery thread and needle
ruler & scissors or rotary cutter and mat

Step 2: Trim Embroidery and Backing Fabric to Desired Size

Trim the embroidery first, and then lay that out on your backing fabric to use as a cutting guide.

Try to leave decent borders on all sides - you'll be losing 1/4-1/2 inch when you sew the pieces together.

Step 3: Sew the Embroidery and Backing Together!

You'll want to sew the pieces right side together. Pin around the edges first, making a place a few inches long to leave open for turning. (You can see the spot I designated by laying a seam ripper inside the pins.)

Start at the bottom of the opening by backstitching and then start sewing, stopping and lifting the presser foot to turn at the corners until you come back to the pin designating the opening, and backstitch again to finish.

Step 4: Trim, Turn and Sew Again!

Trim the corners from the sewn piece, and then turn it right side out, pushing out the corners as best you can.

Once it's nice and flat (iron if you need to!) topstitch around the edges of the embroidery to close the opening and make it look nice. Try to use a very small seam allowance for this - 1/8 inch or so.

Step 5: Add Loops for Hanging!

You can either make two small loops or create one large loop from corner to corner for hanging.

I chose to do two small loops on these, but I do think that threading the floss from corner to corner might be a nicer look.

This bit is pretty easy!

Thread about 10 inches of floss through the needle, but don't tie a knot at the end.
On the backside of the embroidery, push the needle into the backing near the stitch line and bring it out where the fabrics meet.
Then bring the needle back through the fabric next to the first stitch, going the opposite way.
This will form a loop - get it to the desired size and then tie the two ends together a couple times while holding the loop where you want it.
You can use a little fabric glue once you've trimmed the long ends, but I chose not to.

The pictures will explain this better than anything else, so check those out for more information. :)