Embroidery Hoop Frames for Fabric: How To

I hope that I don't kill this one.  I know that I featured fabric in embroidery hoops yesterday in my 5 pretty ways post, and I've mentioned it before, but I thought that a little HOW TO post might be helpful to any of you that are wanting to try this out.  I had personally never used an embroidery hoop for it's intended purpose and I was a little unsure of how I should approach displaying my fabric in the hoop-given that I was not intending on removing it promptly.  This is the way that I worked my embroidery hoop magic.

Step 1-Place the inner cirle your embroidery hoop on your fabric to determine the how much fabric to cut.  I left at least 1" fabric outside the hoop. Cut your fabric (I just cut mine into a square).

Step 2-Flip both the fabric and the hoop over so that the inner hoop is on the bottom and your fabric is right side up on top of the hoop.  Now slide the outer hoop over your fabric.  Try to keep the fabric pulled taut.  You will need to adjust the hoop by loosening the knob to slide the outer hoop over your fabric, and then tightening it to keep the fabric secure.

Step 3- Flip your stretched fabric over.  It is now time to trim.  I simply clipped as close to the hoop as possible.  Some of you may have a better way, but I chose to trim the fabric while it was stretched in the hoop.  It was much easier to ensure that I had sufficient fabric to have it pulled tight.  I was also able to remove any excess.

Step 4-This one is optional.  If you have a fabric that tends to fray you can apply fray block to the raw edges. I don't worry too much about the fabric fraying, the hoops do a good job of securing the fabric.

*Hint-Much like hanging artwork, you will want to find a place on your wall that is not in direct sunlight  so that your fabrics won't be faded by the sun.