so until recently i had lived in my own two bedroom apartment. no roommates, no pets, just me. it was very very nice. it was actually my first place of my own.
and i really really enjoyed making it mine. i love doing that, no matter where i go... making someplace 'mine.' i used to do it in college, by putting up maps or pictures. i still remember my freshman roommates thinking i was a bit strange to put laminated pictures of tarantulas on the walls from Martha Stewart Kids Magazine (hey! they were on cool colored backgrounds and i didn't mind).
now that i'm in a room at my parents, i've done the same thing... i have some new canvases on the wall, a few fabric hangings, and even my own clock. but i also have the option to change it all if i want, and when i move again to my own place, i'll be taking these lovely fabric hoops with me to make a new place my own.
i'm going to teach you how to do it too... it's simple really. get some hoops like this...
any size will do... if you're going to do a grouping, consider how everything will balance. you don't want every hoop the same size unless you're going for a very symmetrical design. i got my hoops at Jo-Ann's or the thrift store. the bigger ones were more readily available at Jo-Ann's, whereas there were a ton (for cheap!) of small to medium sized hoops at the thrift store i went to.
and of course you need fabric. get some in your favorite colors / tones / patterns. you want something you love. i was decorating my craft room, so the colors were bright and mixed, i had already picked pink as my bedroom color, and red as a kitchen/ entry color, so i just went with a variety in my craft space for versatility.
once you've found the fabric you're using, do a quick bit of designing in your head. lay out which patterns you want to make the biggest statement, and then begin placing them in the hoops as you go. remember to stretch your fabric so you don't have a big wrinkle in the middle. a bit of tugging will do the trick.
then trim! don't trim off everything, as you can see above and below you do want some extra fabric around the edge... i'll tell you why in a bit.
the reason you want some extra fabric around the edge is so you can push pin the extras into the inner wood ring. that way you don't have anything poking out the sides. you could also use double sided tape (i've done that before), but if you want the option to change out the fabric later (which i love!), then the flat head push pins are your best bet... they make interchanging the fabric easy as pie.
so here's the layout i decided on (i used my floor as a canvas :D) the big buttons are from the clearance section at Jo-Ann's. i originally planned on painting them for another area of the house, but they were a great off-set to the patterned fabrics... providing me a way to tie in other colors too.
you can see (in this poor quality instagram picture) that i actually added another button, and then i threaded all of them with some ribbon from my stash. these buttons are by no means necessary for a fabric hoop decoration, i just had them on hand and thought they would work.
so there you have it--cheap decor! the most expensive hoop that i bought was $2.50 (including tax) without a coupon. at Jo-Ann's they always have 40% coupons that can help you easily form a collection of hoops in all shapes and sizes. also, the fabric for this kind of project can come from anywhere (some of mine was purchased... two of the 7 patterns, the rest were hand-me-downs from my mom). scraps can come in VERY handy on this project!
all done now! let me know if you've done something like this before, or if you're more apt to try it yourself... i'd love to hear about it and i LOVE reading your comments.
thanks for stopping by! xoxo
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