Hi friends, how have you been? This double hoop embroidered Christmas wreath idea had been swirling around in my brain as an idea since last Christmas, and I'm so excited to have just finished the first of three of these, so that I can share the idea with you! The double embroidery hoop is a great way to make embroidered wreaths (for any season) and they are so easy to assemble using two different size hoops. For this double hoop embroidered Christmas wreath I used one 16" hoop (outer hoop) and one 6" hoop (inner hoop.) and a handful of other simple supplies. All in, it costs under $5 to make, and it only took about 3 hours total to stitch from start to finish. I finished it off on the back with green felt, and now it's all ready to be gifted! I'm on to my second double hoop embroidered Christmas wreath however, this time I decided to use a white linen background. For the third and final one (of this season) I plan on using a printed fabric that looks like burlap. This "pattern"/concept can definitely be used on a variety of textured fabric / with different color base fabrics (not just the pictured green.)
Ready to make your own Double Hoop Embroidered Christmas Wreath? Read on for the full supply list and instructions.
What you'll need:
- scissors
- embroidery needle
- embroidery floss in your choice of various shades of green, brown (for branch tips /branches etc.) and red (or another color) for the bow. The amount of each color needed will vary depending on the size of the hoops that you choose etc.
- 2 pipe cleaners
- 2 varying sized embroidery hoops (for the pictured double hoop embroidered Christmas wreath I used a 16" hoop and a 6" hoop - though you can use any size hoops that you'd prefer -larger or smaller - your choice!)
- base fabric in a color of your choice. The size of the fabric needed with vary depending on the size of the hoops that you choose.
- optional: felt (sized to cover the back of your hoop wreath.) and low temp hot glue gun / low temp hot glue sticks to finish off the back of your wreath.
How to:
- Assemble the fabric in your embroidery hoops to create your double hoop. If you haven't ever assembled a double hoop - refer to imagery above on how to assemble a double embroidery hoop wreath - note once fabric is secured in both hoops continue to pull tight/taught prior to gluing the fabric to the back inside of the inner hoop. Don't glue the fabric from the larger / outer hoop until your are completely finished stitching/finished your wreath and the fabric has been pulled tightly.
- Now, start stitching! In all honesty, I just randomly stitched as I went … I looked at some random pictures of greenery and tried to replicate them using a needle and thread ;) I generally made one large central straight stitch for each branch and then several small back-stitches that overlapped slightly (in a V-starting smaller at the top and gradually getting larger at the base) over top of the large central straight stitch. I wasn't incredibly uniform about how I was stitching either, because tree branches aren't super uniform! Each one is unique! I added small bits of light brown/caramel colored embroidery floss(using one to three small back stitches) - to the tips of each of the darker green branches - to create the look of branch tips.
- To create the bow, I simply twisted two red pipe cleaners into a bow shape /form, and layered it over top of the branch stitching (top center) by simply stitching over top of the bow shape (repetitively back and forth) until the entire pipe cleaner bow "form" was entirely uniformly covered in red embroidery floss. This created the fun 3-D look for the wreath's bow.
- I finished the back off by affixing felt using low-temp hot glue (to cover the exposed back stitching.) However, this is an optional step.
- Hang and enjoy your completed double hoop embroidered Christmas wreath and enjoy! OR gift it to someone special!
