A while back I decided to paint some embroidery hoops I had, fill them with fabric, and hang them up as part of the gallery wall I was creating. But lately I’ve been seeing so many amazing embroidery hoop art creations, that I decided my originals were a little boring. So this weekend I set out to spice up one of my hoops.
Here’s how it unfolded (and how you can do it yourself):
Materials:
- Embroidery hoop (any size): these usually only cost a couple of dollars at craft stores, or I’ve also seen them on Ebay and at thrift stores for cheap
- Paint (optional)
- Fabric for hoop and scraps for decoration
- Pages from an old book
How-To:
1. I had previously painted the wooden hoop and put fabric in it. I’ve found the easiest way to get the fabric in at the right size is to put it in the hoop first (be sure and tighten the hoop really good), and then cut the fabric as close as you can to the back of the hoop. This will ensure that it lays flat against the wall.
2. I knew that I wanted a mish-mash of colors, prints, and items on my hoop art. I’ve already got some birds in my living room, so I decided to continue on with that theme. I used a page from an old book and traced my bird silhouette onto the page and cut it out. If you’d like to use a bird silhouette, I found two good ones for free download from ThePaperSeed.com (click to download) and HeyNowWhoaNow.com (click to download).
3. Next, I used stamp letters to create a saying on a piece of muslin. These letters comes in sets and are fairly inexpensive. I’ve had mine forever and use them all the time. Instead of cutting the muslin with scissors, I tore the fabric so that it would have frayed edges. Tip: If you are working with a woven cotton fabric, you can always snip where you want to tear for length and width, and then just tear the fabric apart. The weave of 100% cotton fabric is perpendicular and you will get a straight tear every time.
If you don’t have stamps, you could also print something out on your computer using any font you want and then tear the paper instead of cutting it. It will give you a similar effect.
4. Next, I created some rosettes out of fabric scraps. This is a simple process…
Cut a long strip of fabric and fold it in half lengthwise (fold wrong sides together).
Begin rolling one end to be the center of your rosette.
Now continue twisting the fabric around your rosette; the more you twist, the more variation you will have in your rosette. You could use fabric glue or hot glue as you go (be careful not to burn your fingers!) to hold the rosette in place, but I usually just hold it all together with one hand and then I have a needle with coordinating thread already knotted and ready to go, and I stitch through some layers of my rosette to hold it in place.
5. Once you’ve created all the pieces for your hoop art, just play around with the placement until you are happy. You can hand-tack your pieces to your fabric with a needle and thread, handstitch them, use a sewing machine, or even hot glue them. I used all variations of attachment on my hoop art, depending on which piece I was attaching.
If you need some inspiration, check out my embroidery hoop art gallery on Pinterest. There are so many fun ones out there to draw inspiration from (or even purchase).
If you made your own embroidery hoop art, post a link in the comments; I would love to see it!
Linked to: Life Made Lovely, Craft-O-Maniac, Making Monday Marvelous, Dittle Dattle Amaze Me Mondays,, Ladybird Lane Weekend Show-off Party