Project 2 Week 2 – Embroidery Hoop Cork Board

So this week’s project is inspired by a post on Sweet Jessie’s blog.  She cut a piece of thick cork into a circle, and covered it in fabric using an embroidery hoop. Once again, I saw a project that I could run with, adding a few tweaks to make it my own!

And that’s when inspiration hit me, I had these round cork trivets from Ikea just lying around. I used to use them for plants, but now they just sort of sit in a corner on my window sill. Add a leftover scrap of fabric, the right size embroidery hoop, a bit of ribbon and I was ready to go! So here is my best effort at a tutorial, I hope you enjoy!

Materials:

7” round cork trivet from Ikea

7” embroidery hoop

fabric, roughly 9″ square

6” piece of ribbon

small eyelet

eyelet setter

hammer

scissors

glue gun

Step 1: Fold over the top of the ribbon, and attach the grommet in the middle of the folded section. This is so you can hang your cork board on the wall with a small nail.

Step 2: Glue the bottom couple of inches of your ribbon onto your cork trivet, with the top of the grommet up.

Step 3: Lay the outer piece of the embroidery hoop on top of the fabric. If you care about the pattern, then you can line it up now. Mark and cut out a square of fabric, leaving an extra inch or so on all sides of the hoop.

Step 4: Making sure that your trivet is facing up (ribbon glued on top) then lay your fabric out on top of your trivet. Make sure you line up your fabric pattern with the placement of your ribbon.

Step 5: Place the outer piece of your embroidery hoop over the top of the fabric covered trivet. You will need to loosen it as far as it can go, and then it will still be a snug fit, but that will be helpful in keeping your project together without any glue.

Step 6: Flip the trivet over. You will need to cut away the fabric in the section with the ribbon, but first seal the edge with glue, so that the fabric doesn’t risk pulling out the other side.

Step 7: Mark the edges of the ribbon on the excess fabric, and then cut away the excess fabric where it would overlap with the ribbon.

Step 8: Trim the corners off the square of fabric, so the edges roughly match up with the circle of the trivet.

Step 9: Using your hot glue, start gluing the excess fabric to the back of the trivet. Work your way around the whole circle, starting and ending where the ribbon cuts through. Make sure to glue down all the little peaks of fabric so your back is as flat as possible.

Turn it over, add some pins and you’re done! All you need is a simple nail to hang the ribbon on, and you are ready to organize your life.

Add a cluster of these to your home office or kitchen wall, or you can even find a set of cork trivets that come in different sizes, for a fun different look.  Personally I find that if you start with a round trivet, it means you don’t have to worry about cutting down the cork which saves you a step, and it means you are going to have a nice clean circle when you are done. Simply measure the trivet you decide to use, and then find an embroidery hoop that fits.

Enjoy, and come back next week for my next fun project!

Allison

P.S.  As always, if you like this project but don’t want to bother making your own, come on over to my Etsy shop and find one to purchase for yourself.