DIY Embroidered Vintage Linen Canvas Art

Most of you all know I have quite the obsession with vintage linens! I picked up a bunch of cutters from the flea market a while back including a vintage Vera linen napkin/placemat with a sweet rose print. It was kind of an odd size, not square like a napkin, but smaller than a place mat. I couldn’t quite figure out what I wanted to do with it, so I sat it aside. Then I was at the craft store a couple of weeks ago and saw these skinny artists canvasses and thought it might be fun to cover one in fabric and use it as art in my craft room. Well, as it turns out the Vera napkin was a great fit! A little embroidery and some staples and you have a fun piece of art for your wall!

Here’s What You Need:

*Vintage Fabric, napkin, hanky, etc

*Lightweight Fusible Interfacing

*Marking Pen or Pencil

*Embroidery Hoop

*Embroidery Floss and Needle

*Scissors

*Staple Gun

*Artist Canvas

Instructions:

Start with your fabric or napkin. Cut it to be roughly about 2-3″ bigger than your canvas. Cut a piece of thin fabric stabilizer or interfacing to the same size and iron on the back of your fabric.

Write out your quote on the front of your fabric with your marking pen. My pen was out of ink so I just used a pencil, but a marking pen is best. Make sure your writing is a couple inches away from the edges.

Now you are ready to embroider. I used the rayon thread you can get at the craft store. Stitch your words using a simple back stitch. If you have never done a back stitch you can see how to do the stitch here. I used french knots to dot my eyes. I also tied off my stitching after each word and started each word with a new knot so as to not have any threads in between the words on the back side.

Once you have embroidered all of your quote, you are ready to make your canvas. Lay your fabric face down on the table and center your canvas face down on top of the fabric. Staple down one side of the fabric to the back frame of your canvas. Then staple down the opposite side down pulling it taut. Fold the corners in towards the back and staple down. Then staple the top and the bottom. Now wipe off any marks showing from your pen with a damp cloth. Now you’re ready to hang your canvas.

I just love how it turned out! I stitched one of my favorite Coco Channel quotes onto the napkin in a bright blue. You could of course get fancier and trace a special font on to stitch your words, which would be gorgeous. I, however, am lazy, and decided to just use my own natural scribble. This took me most of an afternoon while we were catching up on some Netflix. So, it is pretty quick and easy to make. I love the versatility in that you can easily customize it to your tastes just in the colors and fabrics you use. I have hung this little piece on the gallery area next to my desk in my craft room. It’s quite perfect there, don’t you think! I hope you all will make one of your own sometime! I will be back with another DIY next week. Until then….

Happy Crafting!