#OxCoPALS Fall Coaster #4 - FINISHING!

Hi Everyone!

It is now that time! That time EVERYONE has been waiting for! FINISHING! WAHOO! I have received tons of questions and comments on finishing the coasters. Finishing and how you decide to finish these coasters, or any project really, is super important and just like tying a shoe, everyone has their personal preference! (I like to make two loops, kid #1 likes slip on, kid #2 likes Velcro, my best friend likes one loop, then wrap around the other lace...I digress...) Here you can usually find Heidi and Christy hemming projects, and Cotey usually whip stitches. I tend to whip stitch, but the truth is, I do that because I was very intimidated with hemming. I thought it would be so much harder than it actually is. I sew a lot by hand, it's how my Grandmother taught me. I shouldn't have found hemming to resemble climbing Mount Everest, yet I did. In actuality, just like the first cut into the monk's cloth to remove your project, you just have to take a deep breath and be brave and trust! It's all a giant leap of faith! Hemming and whipping aren't as scary as they may seem at first, are actually pretty easy, and are relaxing to do! BE BRAVE, as I tell my kids, we can do hard things!

So, here we go! Let's dive in! We are going to start with the simplest and easiest: Gluing the edge, folding over, and laying a piece of self adhesive felt on the back, and yes, we have a video on it! 

Glue and Felt: (You can watch the short tutorial on social media, below, or find it on Youtube!)

1. So, as I said last week, you will want to glue this coaster not just on the dotted line, but also in the space between the punched edge and the dotted line. This is to make sure that the monk's cloth doesn't unravel and it will make it much easier to get the monk's to stay in place while you put the felt on. I have to say very strongly do not put the glue on the loops. Just on the monk's cloth. The reason we don't recommend putting glue on the punched yarn is that the glue as it dries, will dry out your yarn making it more brittle, which will make it more likely to break and your coasters to fall apart. 

2. Once the glue is dry you can go ahead and cut the coaster out along the dotted line. 

3. Now, you will want to steam press your coaster so it lays nice and flat. Then fold in the monk's cloth so it's folded down onto the coaster and press again. You will notice that it puckers up a bit, this is where you will carefully want to cut the monk's cloth in a nice little tiny v. Fold the monk's again so it is laying correctly. After all the little v's are cut, you will want to press again, making sure that the monk's cloth is not showing on the finished side. 

4. Place the coaster on top of the felt, finished side up. Make small dash marks on your felt with a marker. Take the coaster off and make a circle using the dashes you made.

5.Cut the felt. Peel the backing off and press the sticky side to the back of the coaster. You may need to trim the felt where it sticks out a bit, just be careful that you don't cut any loops!

Whip Stitching: (You can watch the short tutorial on social media, below, or find it on Youtube!)

1. Whip stitching your coaster is not nearly as intimidating as you think it is and really doesn't take too long either. You will want to cut the coaster out after the glue has dried. Make sure you are cutting along the dotted line. 

2. Fold the edge in, you can clip the edge with small clips if you would like, but the edge here is so small that it isn't completely necessary. 

3. Pull an arms length of yarn, about a yard (this will equal about 4" of whipping when using rug yarn, more for fine/worsted) off of your yarn skein and thread it onto a tapestry needle. 

4. Cotey brings the needle through the monk's cloth on the folded edge and across to anchor it and to hide her end. She pushes up through the monk's close to the punched edge and up by the loops. Cotey likes to lay the yarn over the folded monk's before pushing the needle in again and repeating the process all the way around the coaster. When she has to stop to start a new piece of yarn, she threads it through the already whipped edge and then begins the whipping again. 

5. When you get to the end of the whipping, you will want to hide the ends by taking the needle, going through the last 1/2" to 1" of the whipped loops. Once you pull it all the way through, snip the yarn as close to the loops as you can. 

Hemming: (You can watch the short tutorial on social media, below, or find it on Youtube!)

1. Once your glue is dry, you will want to cut on the outside of the dotted line in order to give yourself more monk's cloth to hem. 

2. Fold it over and iron the folded edge to help flatten out and impede the puckering of the monk's cloth. You can then pin or clip it into place to make the hemming even easier. 

3. Cut a length of about a yard of strong thread, button and carpet thread, or even a thread from the monk's cloth, and thread it through a blunt tapestry or yarn needle. Knot the end and remember to use small stitches, about 1/4" apart.

4. You will start just above the hem for the coaster edge, pushing down into the coaster making sure the needle goes through the monk's cloth, not just the loops. If you go through only the loops you run the very real risk of the loops pulling out, but it's tricky because you also don't want to go through the other side of the coaster! So go slowly and carefully, especially if this is your fist time hemming! 

5. Push the needle out of the coaster and through the top edge of the hem, pulling the thread tight. Continue along this way until you reach the end. You will want to pleat these as you go so the hem stays nice and neat! A wobbly edge will lead to a wobbly coaster! 

What comes next?

Next comes steam pressing, which I have touched on in past #OxCoPALs posts. 

1. Get an iron and set it to wool, do not add water

2. Dampen a towel and lay it over your coasters

3. Press down on each coaster. You will want to move the iron around to make sure you get the whole coaster, holding down for 15 seconds each time. . You may have to do this multiple times since they are round and will be fairly wavy on edges. It also helps to flip them upside to steam press a pass or two. 

You now have 4 completed coasters! Congratulations! 

If you want to submit finished photos of your coaster; email them in to info@amyoxford.com, tag us on social media, or use #OxCoPALs on Instagram or Facebook! The coasters we have seen so far look AMAZING! 

This is the last #OxCoPALs project we will be doing for the year, we will start up again in January. I will announce the project sometime in December/January so make sure you keep an eye out! We have had a lot of fun developing this next project along with all the other projects we have planned for 2023!

Until 2023,

~Hannah