Stretch Your Own Canvas (How To)

The long awaited tutorial has finally materialized! You will need: a small stretcher frame (mine is a 10 cents thrift store find used for stretching embroidery), a piece of heavy weight muslin or linen (unwashed, so it will shrink a little as it dries), staple gun (1/4" staples- this is a light duty project), gesso and a cheap brush.

Trim your cloth so there is enough frabic to pull and stretch over your frame (stretcher bars).

Put a staple in the middle of one side, then on the opposite side, with your fingers, pull tightly and staple in the middle again. Repeat. Now the center of your canvas will be nice and tight.

Now, from one of your center staples, pull and staple to the right (I am right handed so I naturally start to the right), all the way to the end. I place my staples about 1/2" apart. Rotate your canvas and repeat on the opposite side you started from. ie: If you started on a long side, you will go to the other long side to pull and staple next, each time stapling to the right. This insures that your cloth is stretched tightly on the diagonal as well as from side to side. You will have staples running from the middle of each side, to one corner. Go all the way into the corner- it will make folding the corner easier later on.

You will finish stretching by starting at the middle staple, going to the left. Again, long side, long side, short , short side. I cannot stress enough that you must pull the cloth as taut as possible. My first attempt netted a saggy canvas as I started to gesso it, so I tore the wet cloth off and started again. Learn from my mistakes! ;)

I chose to fold my corners so that the fold showed on the long sides. Then I just tucked it as neatly as I could so the cloth caused as little lumpiness on the back as possible.

One staple should do it.

This is my canvas after I trimmed the excess cloth away (I used dull scissors, my nice sharp fabric cutting scissors being buried in my sewing machine's cabinet)

The relaxing, easy part- paint with gesso! I use the gesso watered down- one part water to two parts gesso (an approximation). Let the first coat dry, then paint again. This is called priming your canvas. If you are a stickler for beautifully smooth work surfaces, by all means sand the first coat before applying the second.

Don't forget to paint the sides of your canvas too!

Voila! A stretched, primed canvas ready for painting or collage.