How to Finish the Back of Your Embroidery Hoop

 Learn how to finish the back of your embroidery hoop with felt covers & add a little touch of love.

Have you ever looked at the back of your embroidery work and frowned at the mess that it is? I certainly have, but no matter how hard I try I’ve never been able to make it anywhere near as lovely as the front. It’s not like we will be looking at the back as it hangs on the wall, but makes me feel like I have unfinished business, as if there’s always a pile of laundry that never gets done.

All of those knots and bits of thread on the back might have a lot of character for sure, but I wouldn’t call it charming. So luckily, there’s a way to ‘tuck them away’!

Finishing the back of your embroidery hoop isn’t really a necessary step, but if you’re like me and it bugs you, then follow along with me for a quick and easy tutorial on how to give it a little ‘makeover’.

Table of Contents

• Materials
• Steps

Materials

• your finished embroidery work
• another embroidery hoop of the same size as your finished piece
• thin sharpie marker
• scissors
• piece of felt that is of the same size or a little bigger than your hoop
• needle
• thread that is a similar color to your felt

Step One: Stitch the Edge

The first step to hiding the mess of threads on the back of an embroidery hoop requires pulling the edge of your fabric together by adding a running stitch. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be tight enough to keep your embroidery work on the front looking nice and pretty.

Stitch it all the way around and pull it carefully as you go so the fabric bunches up towards the center, then set that aside.

Step Two: Prepare the Felt

Grab your other embroidery hoop, separate it and using the inner hoop, trace it on the outside onto your felt with a Sharpie marker. I found that using dots instead of drawing a continuous line to trace is a lot easier.

Cut out your circle.

Step Three: Stitch on Felt

Lay your felt on the back of your embroidery work and get ready to add the blanket stitch.

You could technically hot glue the backing on but it’s a shortcut that I don’t prefer. Adding the blanket stitch is a lovely attention to detail that adds quality to your work.

I like to start my blanket stitch by creating a lazy daisy stitch. First, bring your needle up from behind the fabric like you see here:

Then push your needle through the back of your felt at A near the edge and pull your thread through.

Next, return through A and push your needle halfway through to B, at the edge of your fabric & felt.

wrap your thread behind the needle, then pull it through.

Repeat a little distance away: push your needle halfway through C and D, and wrap your thread behind it. Pull your needle through.

Each time you do this, make sure your needle is going through both felt and fabric.

Let’s do one more together.

Push your needle halfway through your felt and fabric at E and F, wrap your thread behind it, then pull your thread through. Continue in this fashion until you’ve made it all the way around your hoop.

Step Four: End the Last Stitch

To finish off your last stitch, weave your thread around the last stitch along the edge a few times. Then push your needle through about an inch away from the edge like this:

Pull your thread through and pull slightly as you snip it off. It’ll disappear into the back so you won’t see it. That’s it!

You just learned how to finish the back of an embroidery hoop with a piece of felt to make it super cute & tidy!

Mine almost reminds me of a lemon meringue pie without the meringue! I guess you could say it’s almost good enough to eat

I personally love this finishing and I do this for all of my work.

However, it’s totally okay not to finish the back of an embroidery hoop since no one is going to look at it. I’m happier when I do and I guess I find it relaxing.

Video Tutorial

I hope you found this tutorial useful! If you’re new to embroidery, take a peek at my embroidery basics blog posts for a quick start. Getting started in embroidery is pretty easy, and my posts will help you pick up embroidery tips, beginner-friendly guidance, and everything you need to build confidence with your stitches.

Be sure to check out my stitch library, which is filled with easy-to-follow embroidery tutorials to help you practice and refine your skills. Whether you’re looking for foundational stitches or more decorative techniques, this collection will give you plenty of ideas to try.

Embroidery is a relaxing and rewarding craft that can certainly play a role as a self care practice. So grab your hoop, thread, and fabric, and start stitching!

Play

Visit my Youtube page for more embroidery video tutorials.