Embroidery Hoop Art

I love the embroidery hoop wall art collages I've seen online lately.  They are so adorable, have the perfect amount of homemade touch to them and can be so easily customizable that I had to give it a shot for Beckett's new big boy room.  We are getting things ready to welcome home a newborn in a few short weeks and I'm trying to get my 2 year old excited about all the changes.  He's always had a vintage airplane themed room, it just got a little more big boy and a little less baby over the past few weeks.  

I'm hoping to share a few of the touches we've added, and this is the first!  I decided to do the wall over his bed a gallery wall of sorts - with the embroidery hoops and frames and a big letter B.  I looked at Etsy for artwork and then remembered that Pinterest can teach me to do anything.  (Ok, no - not anything)

I found this and knew it was the perfect place to get started.  No weird equipment, no stitching to learn, just basic sewing and tracing and bam!  A cute little monogrammed piece of art for the wall.  She does hers on a pillow, but the technique is the same.  Check her out at The Farmers Nest.  (Cutest blog!!)

Here is what I used:

- wooden embroidery hoop 

- white cotton fabric

- embroidery thread

- medium sized sewing needle

- fabric pen, eraseable pen, chalk - anything that can be erased from the fabric

Start by putting your fabric into the hoop.  

Then I printed out a monogram template from google, but you can use one from a stencil or a Cricut, etc.  Just find whatever it is you want to trace and trace that object onto your fabric using your easily erase-able writing utensil.  

To use the thread, you'll want to cut about a foot of it off from the rest and separate 2-3 strands to use for the actual sewing.  Thread that through your needle so that it doubles up to make 6 strands total - just like you would for any other type of hand sewing.  Starting from the back of the fabric, just start stitching!

If you run out of thread, tie it off and start again.  

When I was done with the letter, I wanted to add a little extra something so I added stitching for the bunting banner, and used tiny paper triangles with mod podge to adhere them to the fabric.

You can see I also did some big ones with coordinating fabric - this is what is leftover from his bedding.

I'm still configuring it on the wall, but you get the idea right?  So easy, so fun and like I said - you can customize these babies any way you please.

Have any of you done your own embroidery hoop art?