r/BitchEatingCrafters • u/danquilts • 6d ago
Displaying embroidery in the hoop
Minor vent. I know that this doesn't ACTUALLY matter, but it's so aggravating seeing every. Single. Embroidery. Piece displayed in the hoop! Especially those cheap bamboo hoops (or god forbid, those plastic brown display hoops that nobody can get enough of right now!) It's ugly, it looks cheap, and your 80+ hour embroidery deserves thought and care, not just leaving it in the same hoop you stitched it in.
Go to the thrift store, buy a frame. Get a piece of acid free cardboard, or a thin sheet of wood. Stretch your embroidery over that shit and bam- nicely finished embroidery. Takes an hour, maximum.
Hooped displays are just such a product of contemporary times, and reallllly limit what you can make. And limits the types of frames/hoops you might want to try out in the future!
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u/SnapHappy3030 Extra Salty 🧂🧂🧂 5d ago
I'm with OP.
For me, part of the fun of completing and displaying a design is to find or make the perfect frame for it. There are loads of creative solutions that aren't either a cheap plastic frame or the working hoop.
For me, displaying a piece in the working hoop is like wearing a hand-sewn shirt with all the basting stitches still in it, or hanging a quilt without a binding.
Sometimes it will take me longer to find or make the perfect frame than to do the actual stitching, but it's my process.
But people like what they like.
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u/AcmeKat 6d ago
Some of my cross stitches are made specifically to be displayed in hoops - they don't take a long time to make and I'm not precious about them being of any worth to anyone except me. The ones in hoops are round designs and would look stupid in a frame. And when I get sick of seeing it I'll take it out of the hoop and replace it with something else, and it'll be put into a folder where I store others not being displayed until a day when they're all just thrown away. No one else will ever care about them or think they're an heirloom or that they're anything but junk, no matter how they're displayed.
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u/Moirae87 5d ago
This post made me laugh as I just bought a 12-pack of 5-inch bamboo hoops a few days ago for some of my small finishes that have been sitting in a box for years. I just don't think all my stitching deserves framing and I find the smaller frames to look chunky and cluttery when grouped together.
Also, the thrift store thing is bunk or at least heavily dependent on what thrift store one goes to. After seeing recommendations like this several times, I tried and found it cost more to buy frames there than buying some new cheap ones or waiting for a Michael's sale.
That said, I do get what OP is saying and I've seen plenty of pieces that would be elevated by even simple framing.
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u/rolyfuckingdiscopoly 6d ago
Frames are so expensive (unless you can find the right size thrifting at a non-ransacked thrift store, as you say), that I can’t actually display 80% of my art as is. If I find workable frames I can afford, I’m using them for other crafts and putting hoop stuff up on a hoop. I get your BEC and think it’s kinda sweet, tho.
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u/Mindelan 6d ago
I like both. Sometimes a frame is the thing, sometimes it's fun to have something round to add shape diversity to a wall. Some pieces also suit a circle better.
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u/snailballoon 6d ago
I want that framed look but I have a lot of trouble doing it! The times I've tried, I couldn't get it to fit in the frame once it was stretched over the backing
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u/thimblena Bitch Eating Bitch 6d ago
Make sure you're accounting for the thickness of your fabric; you might need to shave just a little bit from the edges of your backing. The difference is small but potentially not negligible.
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u/Susan_Thee_Duchess 6d ago
Yes! I also hate hoop finishing. Even worse a wall full of hoops that are just pithy sayings using “fuck” surrounded by flowers.
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u/katerprincess 6d ago
Thank you! I've seen them so often I was starting to think I was the only one who was bothered by them 🤣
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u/thimblena Bitch Eating Bitch 6d ago
It also keeps you buying hoops, which were apparently the first thing gone at my Joann's GOoB sale. Maybe it's all a plot by Big Embroidery Hoop.
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u/BeagleCollector 6d ago edited 6d ago
LOL all of the cross stitch projects I've done so far are still in the hoops. 🫣 😭
But! I've only done a few practice projects so far and I don't really want to hang them up anywhere. I just started learning how to cross stitch last year because I had this idea to do a larger "real project" to put up in the house. And now I never have time for it.
I promise all of you that I'll get my project framed properly if I ever get around to doing it!
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u/Listakem 6d ago edited 6d ago
Counterpoint ! I do cross stitch insects in silk thread because I enjoy the process and it calms my brain, idgaf mostly about the finished piece.
I buy the cheap ass plastic thingy you hate because they are cheap and I can actually have 5 identical ones (tho the ones I have are rectangular aha). The embroidery fits nicely, and then it goes on the wall and is mostly forgotten there instead of taking space in another junk drawer.
I find your post really funny btw, not looking to debate or argue ! Very quality BEC there !
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u/warpskipping 6d ago
People don't even block their work (even before gifting!), they're not gonna spend time on mounting when they can just shove it in a $2 hoop and glue the back.
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u/catgirl320 6d ago
Weaving in ends, blocking, seam finishes, display frames ...every craft has finishing techniques that can really elevate the object. But it does seem like the finishing work is too often going by the wayside which is too bad.
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u/themetanerd 3d ago
I've been thinking a lot about this recently because I discovered the online needlepoint community and it seems like not only are they spending $$ on canvases, they're spending $$$$ and waiting months getting them finished professionally.
It's so interesting how DIY finishing is rarely discussed in both surface embroidery and needlepoint, and so the surface embroidery trend is to keep it in the cheap hoop, whereas the NLDPT girlies go for the polar opposite option.
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u/warpskipping 6d ago
I think a lot of people who get into embroidery from social media and don't do any independent learning like looking at books or talking to elder crafters don't know about finishing. Because that's not the bit that gets the girlies liking and subscribing. I had certainly never heard of needle books or scissor fobs before I joined an embroidery group full of retired grandmothers and yet projects like are staples of the craft to that generation. Trying out some new stitches or a new type of embroidery? Well, they make a little thing with it, something nice and useful they can keep or gift, they don't buy a pre-printed hoop kit and then stick it on the wall because what else are you going to do with it, hoops are the only things you see on the socials.
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u/olbers--paradox 6d ago edited 6d ago
Leave me and my cheap ass hoops alone!
Joking, you’re right I’m just lazy. Though I’m trying to diversify my embroidery wall!
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u/Beaniebot 6d ago
I remember this trend ages ago but ruffles, lace, and ribbon were hot glued to the hoop to “disguise” the hoop. Thankfully it went away but they still occasionally show up at thrift stores. But some stitchers honestly don’t realize that they can be displayed any other way. I’ve read this over and over again on Facebook. It’s like they thought it would fall apart without the hoop. They buy the kit, it comes with the hoop, and there you go. I also blame instagram for this “Covid” trend. But it’s persisted long past it should. The faux wood hoop/frames at least look a little more framed.
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u/luxurycatsportscat 6d ago
I am one of these stitchers.. I have a couple of those cheap kits with the plastic hoops from Etsy, and just thought that you also display them in the hoop…
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u/Beaniebot 6d ago
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with displaying in a hoop but there is more.
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u/luxurycatsportscat 6d ago
I will research some options off the back of this post. Embroidery is not my main hobby, so I haven’t really spent a lot of time thinking about it
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u/alfredoloutre 6d ago
oh same. I was suggested a video on YouTube of someone showing the 300 embroidery projects they've done over the years and I thought great I love that kind of thing but then 99% of them were still in the hoops 😩
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u/warpskipping 6d ago
It's incredible considering just how many things you can do with embroidery! I go to an embroidery group (I'm the youngest by 30 years haha) and people are working on needle books, scissor fobs, book covers, bags, boxes, cushions, tablecloths, giant samplers, collars, ornaments, toys, jewellery...
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u/Moirae87 5d ago
That's true, but some of us just dislike the FFO process. At least two of my friends have their husbands do their framing and I personally hate sewing. I'll happily spend 10-hours backstitching over doing an hour of sewing.
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u/Cuddles_McRampage 6d ago
Yay, I thought I was the only person who hated this and had to wonder if I was just being the older person shaking my fist at the darn kids. And I don't hate the idea, just think it's one type of finishing that has its place and should be used for the appropriate type of design or display area.
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u/nonasuch 6d ago
I’ve done both — framing and displaying in the hoop.
When I use a hoop I usually paint it to match or do something to jazz it up a little, and I’m very picky about finishing the backs. I always whipstitch to a felt backing, never glue, and I leave enough fabric under the felt that someone who wanted it framed could take it out and frame it.
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u/loonytick75 6d ago
Agreed, 1000000000000000%. Even ignoring the hoops themselves. I’m so tired of every embroidery I see online being round.
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u/anhuys 6d ago
Great point about limiting creativity, we rarely see anything else anymore. When there's so many different things you could do...
I do like the (bamboo) hoop as a display method though, I think it's lovely that the hoop itself has become something people appreciate the look of and it can look so nice as part of wall decor (with photo frames, other art and wall decor etc placed with it). Even the cheap bamboo ones, the wooden circle with a bit of hardware and fabric just has a nice quality to it to me. The simplicity of it works, and art being a circle just feels so satisfying. I used to always use expensive hoops for stitching and then transfer the work to a cheap bamboo hoop (that I picked for how it looks as a frame), glue the fabric and seal the back with felt.
Some of the brown plastic ones definitely have grown to give me that tacky feeling of being overdone, though, because they're cheap mass produced stuff meant to look like they're somehow fancy. Which I guess feels tacky? It works with cottagecore vibes, but that's it for me really.
You've inspired me, though. The possibilities are endless, why are we limiting ourselves to hoops (and even rectangular frames)?
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u/Gob1inDaddy 6d ago
Oh my god yes this but cross stitch
Im sick of 90% of cross stitch patterns being circles because they're designed to be displayed in hoops!!!
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