Hoop Art Five Ways

For several months, I've been collecting embroidery hoops from thrift stores and any other place I can find a cheap deal on them. I wasn't sure exactly how or where I wanted to use them until I finished my girls' shared room and was looking for art for their walls. That's when I got them all out again and put my creative juices to work. It took me a few days of laying them out on my floor in different arrangements and digging through just the right prints of fabric to get a look that I liked and my girls liked.

After all the rearranging and trial and error, I came up with five ways to make art with hoops. I love how ours turned out so I wanted to share them with you! Maybe these will inspire you to do the same or spark some other creative ideas for your own hoop art.

1. Use fun, coordinating fabric prints in your hoops. I used a few different ones (polka dots, dolls, muslin, etc.) here that went along with my girls' room. It's easy and cheap and you can just do that with all of your hoops if you want. But if you want more variety, keep reading.

2. Add in a couple of hoops with muslin and embroider your favorite saying or quote (or a name, monogram, etc.) with your favorite color of thread. Since this is a shared room, I wanted to include something about sisters.

3. Cover the outer edge of your hoop with washi tape for a little pop of color and pattern. I bought the off brand and it didn't stick too well, so I mod podged it for a little extra hold. I used a red chevron patterned tape and I love it!

4. Put a fun fabric print in the hoop and then use felt to make people or animals that you love. Either sew them on or hot glue them like I did. I also added the names of my girls above the item to make it personal.

5. And, last, but not least - my favorite one! Think outside the box and hand stitch a picture on your muslin and use other methods such as different fabrics/threads to make a picture. I love this London double decker bus and the 'street' made from coordinating fabrics. I want to make more of these!

I hope these inspire you to make some of your own! I love how they turned out and plan on making a couple more to add to this wall. You can use as many or as little as you want and hang them in any way you want. The sky's the limit - or maybe the ceiling - but let's not get technical. :)

How to Make an Applique

I don't know why, but the word applique just sounds so old fashioned to me, but really appliques are a great way to personalize or embellish an item. I used this process to make this shirt, but thought I'd show you a tutorial on how to make one. The possibilities are endless with appliques and they're pretty simple!

Find a design you like, (letter, shape, etc) and decide how big you want it to be. Now, you can either print it on your printer and cut it out. Then, trace it onto your fabric OR use a cutting machine like the Silhouette Portrait.

Cut a square of fabric that your design will fit on.

Cut the same size square of Heat N Bond (sewable). You'll want to lay the Heat N Bond down paper side down, then, lay the fabric wrong side down on top.

Heat your iron to the Wool setting and no steam. Iron for about 10 seconds, making sure to cover the whole piece.

Peel off the paper. Place it on your item where you want it to stay and iron it on. You can use the steam setting for this part, if you wish.

 

Now, you can either reinforce the edges by sewing close the edge or leave it. It really depends on how much wear and washing it will get. If it's an article of clothing or a hand towel, I suggest reinforcing it with sewing.

I added some embroidery to mine to dress it up a little, but you can do anything you wish! That's the beauty of creating things!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great weekend!!