Finishing a Flat Back Acrylic Foot Standup with Hidden Foot
What is an flat back acrylic foot standup and how do you finish one?
I just love the acrylic foot standup.
They solve a huge problem in the needlepoint market: what do we do with all our needlepoint stuff?
Everyone loves a 3D standup but they’re expensive and time consuming to finish.
Enter, acrylic foot stand ups
I think these may have been on the market for a while, but I’d credit Abby of Le Point Studio with popularizing them with the launch of her adorable (and ever expanding) Christmas series shown here. I would say it was in this moment that a new finishing method was born!
What is an acrylic foot standup?
The piece typically doesn't have a hanging loop like a normal ornament (but it could!). Instead, it has a little pocket at the base that an acrylic foot slides into. The acrylic foot can either slip into an external pocket (as pictured above) or between the matboard inside.
I absolutely love this finish for a few reasons.
It is cost effective - The acrylic inserts are cheap and if you work with a finisher like me, it’s still very cost effective to add because the labor involved is minimal when compared to a 3D finish.]
If you’re going the self-finishing route, it’s pretty quick from a technique perspective. It probably takes an extra 20 minutes for an intermediate self-finisher to complete
You can display seasonal projects year round on your little stand! This is great for small spaces like an entry way or kitchen so you can rotate your flats seasonally. The rest store flat beautifully.
It’s cute as hell
There are three finishing approaches
Exterior pocket - Like in the Le Point example credited above, the pocket is on the outside of the finished material. It is machine or handsewn on.
Interior insertion - The foot goes in between the two matboards inside the finished needlepoint piece.
Interior insertion with hidden foot - The foot goes in between the two matboards inside the finished piece, but it is lined on the front and notched out in the back, so you can’t see the foot from the front.
Spoiler alert: this tutorial is following method #3: Interior insertion with hidden foot
How to finish an acrylic foot standup with a hidden foot
In this video over on YouTube, I cover three key techniques to finishing a flat back acrylic foot standup.
Notching your backing board to accommodate and hide the acrylic foot. I like when it almost disappears from the front
Lining the front of your canvas to hide visible canvas or backing board if viewed from the back
Joining cording as you will not have a loop involved to hide the ends
How to request an acrylic foot standup from a finisher
If you’re interested in working with a professional finisher, either through your LNS or a direct-to-customer finisher like me, here’s how you can prepare your project and finishing form.
Preparing your project
Make sure you have a wide enough bottom edge to accommodate the stand. The smallest stands I have found, from Yarn Tree and available at LNSes, are 1.5” wide. This means that you must have a base of at least 2” to 2.5” wide to accommodate an inserted acrylic stand.
Like in this bunny example, we went with the narrower stand, but any narrower and we would have been in trouble!
Be sure to ask your finisher if you have questions about the required width for the stands they stock
Finishing form
On my finishing form, select:
Flat Back (no hanger)
Add Acrylic Foot Stand
Include any width details
If you furnish the acrylic stand yourself or have one at home, that’s great! Love that. It will save you the materials aspect of the cost. I can’t speak for other finishers, but there may still be a slight fee for the labor involved to make it chef’s kiss. Please keep in mind, the labor of making the pocket or insertion point is a lot of the cost (at least for me).
Pop over to my finishing page for more details.
What other cool things can you do with an acrylic stand pocket?
In the photo above, I did table place cards and Easter basket tags, extending the use of her heirlooms beyond the years the Easter Bunny visits
I’ve done acrylic stands on ornaments with a hanger, if a gift giver is uncertain how it will be displayed
Acrylic stand option for a flat in an acrylic tray
Acrylic stand for a wedding crest, to be displayed at a wedding and used as an ornament or hanging sign after
Products I used
Acrylic foot - narrower base, used on bunny standup, available from select LNS
Scissors - Favorite spring loaded for notching fabric and canvas
Thank you SO MUCH for this