The Art of Creating a Handmade Embroidery Hoop Chandelier: A Personal Story

I'm Sarah Reed, and I have a beautiful handmade embroidery hoop chandelier that hangs in my living room. It's a one-of-a-kind piece that was created by my dear friend, Rob Ebeltoft, an artist and art installer who also specializes in set design. I remember handing him some old fabric scraps and saying, "Please make something beautiful for the top of our tent at our wedding." He exceeded all my expectations with this stunning piece, and now I'm excited to share how I made a smaller version that anyone can replicate.

My philosophy when it comes to collecting fabrics is simple: if you love something, your love for it will tie everything together. Over the years, I've been accumulating vintage fabric, particularly unfinished quilts that have been left incomplete by someone who put so much energy into them. When I find a project like this that's been abandoned, I feel a sense of duty to bring it home and honor its creator. This approach has allowed me to curate a collection of fabrics that tell stories and evoke emotions.

To create my embroidery hoop chandelier, I used three or four different families of fabric. I started with a vintage sheet, which added a touch of elegance, followed by quilting pieces that brought warmth and texture, and finally, ticking fabric that provided structure and stability. The key is to use fabrics that are taut, so they can be cut without feeling too tight or constricting. I'm not precious about perfection; the beauty of this craft lies in its handmade nature.

To assemble the chandelier, I began by placing each hoop on a flat surface and securing it with zip ties. I used ribbon to loop through the tops of the hoops, ensuring that they were at the same length and level. This is crucial for achieving a balanced and harmonious design. Next, I started tightening the zip ties, gradually drawing in the fabric and giving the chandelier structure.

As I tightened the zip ties, I felt like I was corseting something very floppy into shape. It's not about tightening everything at once; rather, it's about allowing each element to come together organically. The process was meditative, almost therapeutic. I didn't worry about order or sequence; I simply let the fabric unfold as it pleased.

Once the chandelier had taken its final form, I added a few finishing touches. I attached tiny, cute little hoops to create a whimsical effect and hung them from various lengths. You don't have to puncture any of the fabric; instead, you can simply attach these small hoops using ribbon or wire. The result is a delightful, playful piece that adds visual interest to any room.

As I finished my project, I couldn't help but think about how this embroidery hoop chandelier could be made from items found around the house. You could use embroidery hoops, ribbons, and fabrics that you already have on hand. The beauty of this craft lies in its versatility and accessibility.

If you're a collector of fabrics with personal significance, I believe this project is a great way to honor your passion. I've even considered making one for my son using t-shirts from his life; it's become a meaningful way to preserve memories and create something beautiful together. Whether you're an experienced crafter or just starting out, I encourage you to explore the world of embroidery hoop chandeliers and see where this creative journey takes you.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'm Sarah Reed.And if you saw my handmade home tour, youmight have noticed a incredible embroideryhoop chandelier in my living room.A dear friend of mine made it for mywedding.His name is Rob Ebeltoft.He is an artist and art installer, a setdesigner.And I just handed him things I had beencollecting for years, literally years andyears, and said, Please make a beautifulthing for the top of our tent.Thank you very much.We're not going to make a chandelier as bigas he did because that would take forever.But I'm going to show you how to make alittle home sized version that anyone couldmake for their house.So I have embroidery hoops of differentsizes.I think that's important.You want lots of different shapes and sizesand even materials.They make plastic ones in colors.They make metal ones.These are new.But I encourage you to go to thrift storesbecause they are covered in them and theywill often have sizes and shapes that youcan't really get at a big box store.And then I have lots of fabric options.I have just over the years been collectingvintage fabric.I am particularly drawn to unfinishedquilts.But when I find a project like this thatsomeone put so much energy into and then forsome reason wasn't able to finish, I feellike it is my duty to bring it home and tohonor it. My philosophy in your homegenerally is if you love something, your loveof that thing is going to be the thing thatties it all together.And so if you have been collecting fabric,it will all work together.I could be wrong.You could make a terrible chandelier.Tag me in your photos.Let me know. These are all colorful andfloral, so I thought I would mix in sometacking stripes as well.So we're just going to play around withthose.I was imagining maybe like a nursery or achildren's room, something really playful,but this could be moody, it could be reallydark and not let a whole light a lot of lightout of it. This could be all one color.You can really just play around.Okay. To assemble this chandelier, I suggestusing maybe 3 or 4 differentfamilies. So I've got this is a vintagesheet and I've got these quilting pieces andI've got this ticking.So you put the hoop on, make sure the fabricis really taut, tighten it up.It will feel like sacrilege and it will feelhard and sad.But we're going to cut it.I am not precious about this.I don't need these to be perfect.I think the beauty of this craft is that itlooks really handmade.So we're just going to keep doing that.So some of this fabric I will have hadliterally for 20 years through the course ofmy life, it has been proven to me over andover again that the thing I put in the closetfor 20 years I end up using when I'm in athrift store and something is reallyaffordable and it makes my heart skip abeat.How could I not get that?I just I don't have a relationship to thingswhere I can resist them if they make me feelthat way internally.It's incredible to me how much work wentinto these things and then they never gotfinished. I think it would be a great craftto do with kids because they would have somuch fun plotting out your fabric choicesand seeing what combos there are.I would encourage men to do this craftbecause they don't embroider a lot, and Ithink getting your hands on some fabric isgood for everybody.So we're going to piece them togetherloosely with zip ties and it's going to be abig thing like this, and then we're going topick it up and attach it to itself.Zip tie that loosely so it will begin to takeshape.Wherever you want your zip tie, you're goingto take your craft knife and you're going topoke a hole.So maybe protect your surface or don't careabout your surface.And then you're going to take a zip tie andyou're going to be really careful with thecraft knife. You want the zip tie to be onthe inside.You're going to find your hole, poke it up.Poke it down.So you'll pull it, but really loosely.So it wiggles.You can do that.Then I'm going to attach another one.And this is why you want this fabric to bereally taut.If it were really loose, this would be muchharder to cut.So now I'm going to do this about 100 moretimes and we'll see what shape it's taking.I have three different sizes, the samenumber of hoops of every size.You could vary them up, but I wanted to makethis one as simple as possible.Now I'm going to take the top row and cinchthem together.And by doing that, because these hoops aresmaller, it's going to start drawing it inand giving it structure.It's important at this point to not cinchthese closed.So I'm doing all of these really loosely.Okay, now I'm going to connect the ends sothat it can really start to take shape.Once we tighten these zip ties, it will takeits final form.But before we can do that, we need to hangit up.We're going to take ribbon, which I havepre-cut all the same length and we're goingto loop it through the tops of theembroidery hoops.Hey, you're helping.What I want to do is make sure all theseribbons are at the same length and level.Otherwise the chandelier will be wonky.That looks pretty good to me.This is a temporary knot, and now we'regoing to hang it up and tighten it up.I'm just going to get this out of the wayfor a second.It'll come back later and hang this right onthe knot so that all the ribbons are the samelength. Okay, now I'm going to go in.I'm going to start tightening zip ties.This is a little like a corset.It's like something very floppy is all of asudden really taking on structure.It is not important to tighten in any order.I'm going I'm not going full tight, but I'llprobably go around and tighten these severaltimes. If you wanted to play around with itbeing more floppy, you can do that.You could even do this with wire.You could do this with ribbon.If you had embroidery hoops, you couldprobably make this out of things just at yourhouse. So as a final touch, I'm going toattach these tiny, cute little hoops and justdangle them at various lengths.And you don't have to puncture any of thefabric.You can just attach this to this.I'm just going to loosely tie these for nowand then I'll come back and snip them.You could hang them off of each other.You could go crazy.So we've added some structure by tighteningthe zip ties.We're going to tuck in the bulb.Good. And then you want to cut off the endsof your zip ties as close to theclosure as I can, getting the whole tailoff.Otherwise, when you turn the light on, youmight see all these little tails.And that's not pretty.Once you're finished clipping all yourlittle bits, you'll turn it on and see how itlooks. Adorable.If you have a collection of fabric that ismeaningful to you, I think this is actually agreat project for you.I actually have a box of t shirts from myson's life that I've collected, and I maymake one of these for him.Follow HGTV Handmade for more crafts justlike this.\n"