Plates of Embroidery Hoops

One of my favorite things about my house is that fact that I get to have my own Craft and Sewing Studio. I inherited a couple vintage decorative plates from my grandpa that passed away almost 5 years ago, and I decided that collecting more plates would create nice wall decor in my studio, starting with the first plates from Grandpa John! I had inspiration from online to create a wall of embroidery hoops covered with fabric, and I imagined that it would be awesome to mix the two. So, here's a quick way to create unique pieces of art for any room that contains your personal touch and is very retro. Here's what you'll need:

Fabric
Embroidery Hoop
Thread
Needle
Pinking Shears

Wrapping fabric on a hoop is really simple. First things first, lay out the fabric with the inside hoop underneath.

Place the inside hoop on a place on the fabric where you like the design, place the outside hoop on the top and secure as tight as possible.

Once you have the fabric secure on the hoop, trim the edges with a pair of pinking shears to keep them from fraying. You can use regular scissors but pinking shears made cleaner edges. You want to leave a good 2" or more to gather. The more the better.

And then.....play with your puppy....she's so cute! So I took a little break from making hoops for her.

Anywho...once you've trimmed the edges you want to gather the fabric on the back. Try to keep the thread closer to the edge. I did not do such a good job with this teal and white one but it turned out alright. 

Pull the thread as tight as possible and tie off and finish. That's all!

Here's another example. As you can see I left a little more slack on this one and it turned out a little better.

Its a little dark....the nature of the fabric.

I'm really stoked about the way these turned out! I did three so far and mixed them with the plates I have hanging up...it's a start! I love the arrangement.

The polka dotted one is two layers of fabric on one hoop, but other wise executed like the others. I think I'm going to do a couple with colored lace and different colored background fabric when I get more hoops! I hope you enjoy these! Can't you just see an entire wall full of plates and hoop like this!? I can! Until next time...