Saturday, April 14, 2012

Embroidery Hoop Nursery Art

Hope everyone had a great Easter and Passover! We had a great weekend with our little bunny!

So I still haven't had a chance to catch up yet. Stay tuned for posts on this (delish!), this (pretty good), this (failure), this (pretty good), and more at some point in the future.

Today I am finally going to post on a project I started while still on maternity leave. I pinned this photo a long time ago - I thought it would be a cute way to add some color into our very chocolate and vanilla nursery:

So I set out to find some cream, blue, and brown fabrics and some embroidery hoops. Apparently, AC Moore and Michaels don't carry embroidery hoops (or not very many). When I went to Joann's Fabric, I looked around for some. All I could find were these plastic ones. Although they were colored (and some brightly), I thought I would just spray paint them and make them all white, so I picked up a bunch.




My laziness and lack of patience led to the failure of this idea. I just bought regular old spray paint and thought that would work. After one coat, I knew there was no way it was going to cover. Then, after the second coat, I knew there was no way it was going to stick. It was flaking off before I even got them in the house.
Paint chipping = Fail.

Clearly I should have bought the paint made to stick to plastic and/or primed them first. Oh well, on to Plan B: order some hoops online. Not only were they cheaper, they arrived in just a couple days!

Amazon ordered hoops

Fabric collection

So I started cutting the fabric and sticking it in the hoops.


Then I played around with placement:



Once I decided I liked which fabrics were in which sized hoop, I trimmed them up. They sort of look unfinished, and because of the fabric in the back, they wouldn't lay flat on the wall. So I trimmed as much as I could, then hot-glued the fabric to the frame - the instructions in the pin said to do this, I was just hoping to not have to so I could swap out the fabric or maybe use them again for something else.


Then they sat, in a pile, on JJ's dresser for weeks.


Finally I recruited Joe to help me hang them over the crib. I tried to replicate the layout I liked on the floor, but we sort of just started throwing them up there. I used super strong 3M Velcro hanging strips for the J's, and just regular picture hanging hooks for the hoops.

We took a step back and checked them out. Not loving the placement. We spaced them way too far apart (I hadn't looked at the pin in awhile), and I think I need some more. But, at least they are off the dresser and hung. And this nursery finally has something else hanging on the wall besides these counting cards. I have a couple spare small hoops, so I may venture out and hunt down a couple more fabrics.

"Finished" product







JJ's view from the crib



Side note, this little guy is my favorite:


I know it is a bit girly, but its special to me. I read a million blogs and websites while I was pregnant about what to bring to the hospital. I think it as on Ashley's that I read to buy a cute pillow case. Since so many pics are taken with you laying on it, its more fun to have something you like than just a plain white one back there. So while I was waiting, and waiting, and waiting for me to go into labor, I did a lot of shopping. I found these cute pillow cases from Walmart of all places, and fell in love. Blue and brown were our wedding colors, and I knew I would use these cases again. Of course I have only a couple pics with this pillow behind me, but you can see a little of it here, while we were getting JJ in his too-big bear suit on discharge day! 

Because we had a boy, I thought the blue would fit nice in his room. The cases actually came in a little pouch that was the same pattern, so I used the pouch for this hoop.

Anyway, there is my super long post on the nursery art that I am still not happy with. Once I get some more stuff on the walls and paint the closet doorknobs, I will do a full nursery post. Expect it sometime after JJ is in a real bed!

So what do you think? Any ideas on how to make it look a little better? Do you think I should paint the J's? Leave your suggestions in the comments!




8 comments:

  1. So super cute. What a fun and easy idea for a baby shower gift. I think I'm gonna try to make these. Love the way your's turned out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So cute! I've been thinking about doing something similar. I have the hoops, I have the fabric...now I just have to muster up some third trimester pregnant lady energy to finish the project. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Nichole! Hope you're enjoying your new little boy!

      Delete
  3. Darling idea! Too bad nobody had thot of it when I was
    expecting (that's years ago...lol). However, I can always
    use it for a grandchild or a shower gift. Thanks !

    ReplyDelete
  4. Do you remember the seller you bought the embroidery hoops from on Amazon?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just looked it up: fabric.com. Here's one of them: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AUFGFM/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

      Are you planning something similar? We'd love to see the results!

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...