Tools and Equipment

Embroidery Hoop

Also Known As Tambour Frame

Needlework and Sewing Tools

Two concentric rings, usually wood or plastic with a tightening screw on the outer ring, that hold fabric drum taut while a needle works through it. Keeping the ground fabric flat and under even tension is what lets embroidery stitches sit true, and the hoop is the simplest and cheapest tool the craft owns, small enough to travel in a work bag and large enough to frame a finished piece for display. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts

Introduced When (Circa)

In use by the eighteenth century, the earliest depicted evidence 1

The sources consulted give no invention date; an eighteenth century portrait of Madame de Pompadour working at a tambour frame is the earliest depicted evidence, and hand embroidery frames of some kind are likely far older.

Origin

Historically made of wood, bone or ivory. The earlier name for the tool was the tambour frame, tied to the tambour chain-stitch technique it was first widely used for. 1

Introduced era (class)

Early Modern 1

FAQs

Why is an embroidery hoop sometimes called a tambour frame?

The name comes from tambour embroidery and the French word for drum.

The word tambour is French for drum, and the name comes from tambour embroidery, a style worked with a fine hook instead of a needle. Hoops built from an outer and an inner ring became available at the same time that tambour embroidery grew popular. The circular wooden hoop pulled the fabric extremely taut, which the hook needed in order to pass through the cloth. Tambour work is believed to have started in India in the seventeenth century and became popular in England and Europe in the eighteenth century.

Who patented the adjustable embroidery hoop?

Helen Harmes of Missouri received the patent in 1903.

In 1903 a patent was awarded to Helen Harmes of Missouri for the Adjustable Embroidery Hoop. Its diameter could be changed to fit the working area of a design, which one history credits with greatly increasing the popularity of embroidery in the early 1900s and with leading to the adjustable hoops of today.

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