Hoopdaloopdahoop: A Radical Cross Stitch invention!
I don’t know about you mob, but whilst this portrait of Madame de Pompadour sitting upright at her Tambour frame is fabulous, it’s not quite what you would see if you bowled into my house and caught me stitching. Rather, you’re more likely to find me slouching on the couch or hanging on a seat outside watching the kids run around. And I don’t ever get much time to stitch, I just grab 10 minute sessions here and there between nappies, feeding kids, tidying up the never ending mess and keeping the garden ticking along.
So I have recently begun a pretty major project which involves a piece of cloth which is 1.2 x 1.4 metres in size. I have a table tapestry frame, beautifully hacked by my dad and it’s over a metre wide so I can get a massive bit of fabric on it. But it’s not terribly easy to move around and it really does need a table which is not terribly convenient in our lounge. So I’ve been humming and aahing over a little solution, asked around the interwebs a bit and I think I’ve invented something! If anyone has seen anything like this let me know! If I haven’t invented it, at least I gave it a great name 
The problem with working a large piece of fabric on a hoop is that you have to put the fabric somewhere. I know people fold up the edges and clip it but it still means a lot of handling of the fabric and that’s always something to minimise. I thought to myself, what about stuffing it in a bag? That could work, but then hanging onto the bag as well as the hoop could get annoying. Then Valerie mentioned on our Facebook Page that she knew a lady who put it in a pillowcase. Ooh that’s clever! Nice and soft too.
Then a little spark kicked in my brain of a tiny little hack you could make to a pillowcase to make it work just ace. So here’s a tutorial!
How to make a Hoopdaloopdahoop!
Materials:
One pillowcase
Four 15cm strips of ribbon or leftover fabric, anything will do so long as it’s thin and not too wide. Go through your scraps, something will pop out.
Four press studs/domes/whatever you call them where you live. Or buttons, or maybe velcro, whatever you have lying around. Something to attach with, it’ll be clear in the tutorial.
Scissors
Needle & thread
Step one:
Sew your four strips of fabric/ribbon to the top of the opening of the pillowcase at evenly spaced intervals. It’s not necessary to measure, just use your eye. You could machine sew this on but I just handsewed them on, didn’t take long, less time than getting the sewing machine out. And it didn’t use any electricity!
Step two:
Attach your press studs/buttons/velcro whatever to the top of the strips of fabric and a couple of centimetres from the edge of the pilowcase. There needs to be enough strip there to wrap around an embroidery hoop. If you’re using buttons you’ll need a sewing machine to make button holes. Sorry, no idea how you do that The picture below shows how it needs to work.
Step three:
Figure out which part of the fabric you want to be working on and stuff the rest of the fabric into the pillowcase, leaving the bit you want sticking out the top. You may want to mark the centre with an embroidery pen or some such. If you are working far from the edge you will still need to fold or roll the fabric back to the point where you will be working and secure somehow, with a clip or something. But you’ll only need to do one side so you have access to the back of the fabric. Stuff, stuff!
Step four:
Clip or button or stick your straps over the part of the embroidery hoop you have on the top of the fabric. Some people use the bit with the screw on top, some use the other bit. However you roll.. Then secure the other part of the embroidery hoop underneath and tighten onto your fabric. You will notice in the picture I only have two strips attached. Firstly I only had three sets of press studs and secondly I broke one while attaching. It’s possible to only have two, but I recommend at least three so the fabric is well secured within the case. The objective is to not have to deal with the fabric so the straps act as a fence.
Step five:
Tuck any excess fabric into the pillowcase and get stitching!
That only took me about 20 minutes to make, including photographing and toddler interruptions, so pretty darn easy! Hopefully this is helpful for some of you out there. Please let me know if you come up with any different/easier ways of doing it. Maybe someone out there has a good idea on how to close it off at the top for when you need to put your project away?
Now I’m off to keep working on my epic project and see how this baby works. Will keep you posted.
xox
rayna
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9 Responses to “Hoopdaloopdahoop: A Radical Cross Stitch invention!”
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wow how did u fit all that in …today?!!
i wonder if you are having soupdaloop for lunch?
I really don’t know.. somewhere between reading stories, changing bums, making morning tea, packing kindy bags and having my own breakfast (11.35).
UPDATE: worked out your pillow can also act as a sneaky stash spot! think hot water bottle/hipflask/chocolate (possibly not all at once).
Wonderful! If you add a tab with a snap at the end, you could also make it a fold-up travel case for your project–just wrap the pillowcase around. Or, if you were feeling really ambitious, a supply pocket for extra needles/floss could be added as well. (I’ve been known to take crafty projects a little bit too far..)
thezenofmaking´s last [type] ..Chevron Lace Cardigan- The Yoke
@thezenofmaking yeah been thinking about that it would mean being more careful about how you stuff the fabric in so it could roll up nice. The way I’ve got it in now it’s pretty bulky. And yeah it would be easy to whack a pocket on the outside! Commando embroidery bag!
way cool! i’m gonna try and remember this when i decide to take on a larger project!
dez E.´s last [type] ..DIY – Sewing Jar
way cool! i\’m gonna try and remember this when i decide to take on a larger project!
with the bag….you could add a flap to it like a sachet with ties and when you are finished sewing you could just pop the flap over and tie it up to protect it. Or make it like a pillow but add the 3rd layer folded backward on itself half way down so like a pillow. you fold in back on itself once you have finished sewing. Does that make sense in words.?
Brilliant! Love the fabric you used for the straps.
Jill´s last [type] ..Let the WIPocalypse begin!