A Floral Embroidery Hoop + Free Pattern

Today, I wanted to share a friend's embroidery hoop that I made as a wedding gift. After looking through several hand embroidery ideas, I finally decided to create my own design. I wanted to share my design and a few tips for making your own homemade embroidery hoop, whether you need ideas of things to embroider for a friend or for yourself. I would have to say a floral hoop is one of my favorite hand embroidery ideas.

Setting Up the Embroidery Hoop

I actually prefer to use a smaller embroidery hoop when I am working on the project itself, and I wait to put it in the larger hoop until after it's done. I like having a set of different size embroidery hoops so I can use the right one for each project. Or one for each project, if I happen to be working on multiple projects at the same time.

I actually bought a set of 12" embroidery hoops to display my finished work in because I knew this wouldn't be my only double embroidery hoop wreath! The best type of embroidery hoop is a simple wooden one to showcase your work. If you're not sure what size hoop you would like to display your work in, you can also get a set of wooden hoops in various sizes and make lots of homemade embroidery hoop pieces.

Setting up the embroidery hoop just means you need to print out the pattern and trace it on to your fabric (see below for pattern). Or you could tape the fabric to your computer monitor and trace it directly from there. Linen fabric is always a classic choice for regular or heart shape embroidery hoop art.

Stitching My Friends Embroidery Hoop

Picking my colors was the fun part! For the main colors, I like to use a range of three to five shades of one color, ranging from somewhat light to somewhat dark. Choosing a range of colors gives it more depth, while using only one or two similar colors would make it feel too flat. If you're having trouble deciding, you can use a DMC color chart to pick the right colors.

I do recommend using DMC embroidery flosses, even though they're a little more expensive than the off-brand embroidery flosses. It really makes for a more professional embroidery frame, which is what you want for a special gift.

I used several different types of embroidery stitches in this hoop. I used two strands of thread here unless otherwise noted. Of course, it's up to you which stitches you prefer, but here are mine:

• 
  White and navy flowers: Satin stitch for the petals and a French knot for each center. I actually wish I hadn't used yellow for the centers because there is no other yellow in the rest of the design, so I recommend picking a color from the rest of your design for simple hoop art.
• Baby's breath: Stem stitch for the stems (of course) and French knots for the white part.
• Pointy-tip leaves: Fishbone stitch, although I've been experimenting with stitching this style leaf in satin stitch for another project.
• Stem with "loopy" leaves: Stem stitch for the stem and lazy daisy for each leaf. I did the stem first, then went back over it with my lazy daisy. I've been experimenting for a double embroidery hoop wreath and found that filling in the lazy daisy stitches with a second lazy daisy in the center of each is also a fun look!
• Large purple roses: These are my favorite part of the hoop! I used the woven wheel stitch (also known as the wagon wheel stitch). My tip for fluffy, 3D roses is to leave some stitches loose and pull others tighter while fluffing up the rose with your needle as you go. It will suddenly look like you have covered a lot less ground, but the rose will be floofier! (Of course, if you prefer flatter roses, you can skip this step.)
• Words in the center: I used stem stitch to do the thin parts and outline the thicker portions, then I filled in the thicker portions with more lines of stem stitch. I used this fun gold thread for the couple's last name and the arrow.

Backing an Embroidery Hoop

To finish your hoop, you will want to fold down the extra fabric along the back of your hoop and trim off the excess. I like to hot glue the fabric to the hoop. You can also look into backing the embroidery hoop with felt to cover any imperfections on the underside of your work. 

Backing an embroidery hoop doesn't have to be difficult. Just cut a circle of felt the same shape and size as the hoop and use hot glue to attach it to the frame. To finish, you can add a ribbon to hang it with or just leave it as is for simple hoop art. 

Make sure you package your work carefully so the fabric doesn't get punctured! I like to put it in an old Amazon box and put lots of tissue paper in. Then I just wrap the whole box in some paper and add some ribbons and bows to make it look pretty.

Start Your Homemade Embroidery Hoop 

Here is the pattern! Just right click the image, select "save as," and save it to your computer. While this was a 12" hoop, you can print the pattern to be any size you like. Trace the group of flowers a total of four times on your fabric, spacing them more or less evenly. You can use whatever lettering style you prefer for the text in the center.

I usually prefer to design the center text after embroidering all the other flowers. I feel like that gives me a better idea of how it will look so I can figure out where the words will look the best.

I hope these tips and tricks were helpful! There are so many ideas for things to embroider out there, but you can't go wrong with a wreath of roses. Drop a comment below if you have questions or something wasn't clear.

Have you ever done a homemade embroidery hoop?