You’re stitching a large project on a  scroll frame, and you’re worried the pretty embellishments will get damaged (or will damage the fabric) when you start rolling up the stitched area?

Fear no more – here’s a way to protect your work as you carry on stitching.

You’ll need:

• a partially stitched project, mounted on a rotating stitching frame
• a sheet of felt (or a plush towel) as wide as the stitched fabric
• 2 safety pins

Ready?

1. Turn the stitched fabric over to show the back, and tuck the felt (or the towel) between the stitched fabric and the wooden rod. (You can use a single layer of felt, or if you prefer more padding, double the felt over to make it a double layer)

2. Carefully roll up the fabric and the felt, making sure the felt gets trapped under the stitched fabric without any creases:

3. Turn the stitched fabric back to the front, and keep rolling all the layers up, until you’ve cleared enough space to stitch the rest of the project:

4. Use a couple of safety pins to tack the felt temporarily so that it doesn’t get in your way while you stitch. (If you need to clear more space as you stitch, simply remove the safety pins, roll the layers up some more, and tack them again with the safety pins.)

Et voilà !!

A few design ideas you may like, for which this tip works really well: