How to Make Your Own Wall Art with an Embroidery Hoop and Iron on Vinyl

Embroidery is on the rise! Whether it’s on denim jeans, suede jackets, or canvas shoes this trend is taking over! We wanted to get heat transfer vinyl in on a bit of the action with some DIY hand embroidered wall art. There are many cute projects you can make with just heat transfer vinyl, some cotton fabric, and an embroidery hoop (like these from Sugar Bee Crafts, and this July 4th one from A Girl and a Glue Gun, or these nursery art hoops, or even this one with pom pom trim!) But I wanted to incorporate embroidery floss and HTV to make one adorable gift for Mother’s Day! Keep reading to see what materials are needed for this project!

Supplies for DIY Embroidery Hoop Art

  • Siser® EasyWeed® Heat Transfer Vinyl (I’m using purple)
  • Cotton Fabric
  • Embroidery Floss
  • Embroidery needle
  • Home Iron
  • Heat Transfer Cover Sheet
  • Craft Cutter
  • Scissors
  • Ribbon optional

Step 1: Create, Cut, and Weed Your Design

Start by making your design in your cutter software. For this project I used Silhouette Studio. This design is really simple with a heart in the center and two M’s surrounding it. The font is called Hand Stitched and I love to use it for faux embroidery looks, but today I’m going to use it as guidelines for my stitches!

Cut HTV with the shiny carrier side down and your artwork mirrored. Our suggested cut settings for EasyWeed can be found on the Siser website. After cutting, remove the excess using your Siser Weeder.

Weeding excess purple EasyWeed heat transfer vinyl

Step 2: Iron Your Fabric and  EasyWeed Heat Transfer Vinyl

With your iron on the cotton setting, press out any wrinkles before decorating the fabric.

Iron wrinkles out of 100% cotton fabric

Use your embroidery hoop as a guide when placing the HTV. Make sure to leave some excess fabric around the edges. That will make it easier to gather them at the end. When the HTV is in place, take the hoop away and replace it with a heat transfer cover sheet. Us your iron to press firmly on each area of the design for 15-20 seconds.

Use embroidery hoop to place heat transfer vinyl

Iron on heat transfer vinyl to cotton fabric

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since EasyWeed is a hot peel, you don’t have to wait for the carrier to cool before peeling it away.

Peel EasyWeed's carrier while hot

Step 3: Assemble Your Embroidery Hoop

Twist the screw on top of the embroidery hoop (1) to separate the inner and outer hoops from each other (2.) Stack the smaller one under the fabric and the larger one on top (3.) Pull the fabric taught while tightening the top screw to secure the fabric between the hoops (4.)

how to disassemble and re-assemble an embroidery hoop

 

Now you can trim around the hoop and save the extra cotton fabric for future projects. For some, this project is practically finished. If your embroidery hoop is only going to be decorated with HTV, you can jump to Step 5.

Use scissors to trim away extra fabric Thread embroidery needle with embroidery floss to begin stitching

 

Step 4: Stitch it!

Thread your embroidery needle with a coordinating or contrasting embroidery floss, and start stitching from the back. Poke the needle through to the front and use the HTV guidelines as you stitch back and forth.

Start your first stitch from the back of the embroidery hoop

Use iron on vinyl dashes as stitching guide lines

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This stitching style is similar to the running stitch, and is good practice for young ones who may be interested in sewing or embroidery.

Continue stitching around each letter

When you reach the end of the letter, tie the embroidery floss in a knot in the back and trim the thread. Now you can repeat this process on the other “M.”

Tie a knot and trim down embroidery floss once you've reached the end

Step 5: Finishing Touches

Gather the extra fabric on the batch using a running stitch along the edges. Pull the string tight to pull the fabric in and hiding it behind the embroidery hoop.

Continue stitching around the entire circle Gather excess fabric with a running stitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you’ve stitched all the way around the circle, knot the embroidery floss and trim away an large pieces of extra fabric.

Pull the embroidery floss tight before tying in a knot Trim any excess fabric to finish the embroidery hoop art

 

 

 

 

 

 

When all is said and done, the back should look something like the photo on the left. And the front should give no hint of the messy stitching that hides on the back.

The finished back of our Mother's Day embroidery hoop art The finished front of our Mother's Day embroidery hoop wall art

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re feeling fancy, a bow is easy to add with a bit of ribbon.

How to tie a bow with ribbon on an embroidery hoop

This embroidery hoop art is ready to be hung on the wall! See how the embroidery stitches add 3-D detail?

Close up of stitching over EasyWeed iron on vinyl

I just can’t get enough of DIY embroidery hoop art! I think the hoops are just so adorable, and it’s the perfect chance to use up scrap fabric that are too pretty to pitch but too small for many sewing projects. Whether you whip one up for Mother’s Day or are thinking of ones you could make for yourself, be sure to pin the image below so you can look back on it when it’s your turn to craft!

Make mom a hand stitched master piece this mother's day! It's easy when you have heat transfer vinyl to guide your stitches. See how we combine embroidery floss and Siser EasyWeed iron on vinyl in this quick craft to make adorable wall art for Mother's Day!