Pin Thing

Yeah, I know, I'm really clever with naming things. Years of practice, that's all it takes.
Anyway, my good friend Marla has a really cool thing (here I am being all descriptive again) in her room that she hangs jewelry on. It has patterned/textured fabric as the background and then she used lace and other fabric to make a tree shape on top. Anyway, guess I should have taken a picture. It made me want something to hang my pins (broaches?) on. So, I started planning. I really wanted it to be a special shape, not just rectangular or circular, but something more interesting. I couldn't think of anything like that that would still allow me to poke pins in and out of it. So, i was browsing a craft shop in Santa Cruz and found a couple embroidery hoops. Well, my roommate and I discussed possibilities and for less than 2 bucks I thought it was worth a shot. Here we go...

Here they are! 2 different sized wooden rings!

 Well, these lovely rings just sat on the floor in my room with my empty paint trays and crusty paint brushes for weeks I think. I had planned on covering them with 2 different canvas-type fabrics and then somehow attaching them together, but I was having trouble finding some cheap fabric with a print that would work (going to a fabric store may or may not have helped the situation). Finally one day as I was wandering through my favorite thrift store and found a silk scarf for 50 cents with a pretty awesome perfect pattern! Sure, silk isn't the best stuff to poke with pins all day, but hey, 50 cents, people! And behold:

Beautiful, huh!? Well, it's about to be
torn apart.

Here is it, afer I unstitched the poor thing.

 So, as you can see, I brought it home and immediately began to rip it up...(see seam ripper pictured above). Next, I did my best to iron out the creases. It had a lot.

And then fitting it into its frame.

The question of using it for the small or large frame was
answered for me. It would only cover the small one.

Cool! Progress! Unfortunately, after I excitedly put some pins on this and hung it on the wall, it just stayed there by itself looking way too small for a couple more weeks. I couldn't find a second fabric that was cheap and coordinated with this one and my room (again, a fabric store may have been useful here). I did find a really cute possibility in a dish towel at anthropologie, but it didn't quite go with my whole idea of cheap. So, I held onto the dish towel idea and looked a few other places. Fail.
Then, I randomly stumbled apon a rummage sale while I was baby-sitting and we went to check it out. It was a treasure trove! Besides our amazing find of almost new 2 dollar RocketDog shoes that fit the girl I was watching perfectly, but I found a couple fabric scraps that were fantastic (and 50 cents again)!!! So, now it was time to really get to work. I decided to paint the wood white to fit in my room a little better and to try and make them look like frames instead of embroidery hoops. Luckilly, I had some nice glossy white paint laying around!

Then, i got my new fabric out and it down to size. It's not canvas either, but just some regular old cotton. I think it will work just fine and I LOVE the print. LOVE IT. I love it so much I'm going to show it in full size.

 Ya like that?

I do.

Ok, so Then, I just had to put in on the frame and then figure out how to attach the two. I decided to just stich the smaller one right onto the larger one. I used white thread and made big simple stitches. That way, if I ever want to switch out the fabric or just detach the two hoops I just rip the thread and voila! nbd. It worked like a charm and was so so easy.

 Then, I just pulled the excess fabric around the back and stitched it together. I added a couple pieces of tape (I'm like that show my dad occasionally watched....RedGreen anyone?) And there you have it. All I had to do after that was add the remaining pins and hang it up. I love it.

Done.