In the land of punch needle embroidery, there’s one little rule that holds everything together, your fabric has to be nice and tight. Like, drum-tight. That sweet tension is what makes the loops behave and your design shine. But if you’ve ever tried punch needling with a regular embroidery hoop, you probably know the struggle; popping fabric, slipping edges, and way too much re-adjusting. Hoops are great for some things, but let’s be honest… they’re just not the best sidekick for punch needle. That’s exactly why I made my own DIY punch needle frame with gripper strips, and lucky you, I’m going to show you how to make one too! Ready? Let’s do this!

Material Needed – DIY Punch Needle Frame

4 rectangular wooden batten (dowels), one side is 2,5 cm, the other side 4,5 cm. As for the length, you have the freedom to choose the size that suits your needs. Personally, I wanted a square-shaped frame and opted for a larger size. So I went with 80 cm length for the top and bottom of the square, and 75 cm for the sides.

Gripper Strips, measure the number of centimeters you need to encircle your DIY punch needle frame. Keep in mind that grippers don’t need to be attached to the corners. In my case, I needed a total of 4 lengths of 75 centimeters each.

Some nails (they should not be longer than 2 cm) and a staple gun heavy duty to attach the grippers to the woods of the punch needle frame.

4 metal brackets to attach the piece of woods together.

A spokeshave, a cutter or any cutting tool to round the edge of the wooden batten, and some sand paper to smooth it out.

Cut resistant gloves, a hammer and a screwdriver (electric is the best for this project).

Most of the supplies needed are available on Amazon, I have a page where you can find them easily here: Amazon Storefront

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Step 1 : Prepare your wooden bars – DIY Punch Needle

To get my wooden bars ready, I started by gently rounding off one corner of each, just me and a trusty cutter (though if you’re feeling fancy, a spokeshave gives a cleaner finish!). This little curve is key: it helps the gripper strips glide over the edge like they were meant to be there, hugging the fabric just right. Once they’re all nicely curved, I take a moment to sand them smooth, making sure there’s nothing sharp left to snag or scratch.

Only round one corner on each wooden bar, that’s all it takes to help everything bend and behave just right!

Step 2 : Attach the Gripper Strips to the wooden bars

First of all, I highly recommend you to bend smoothly the back of your strips to loosen them up. As they are really stiff, it would be difficult to nail them down the wooden bar if we didn’t do this first. Do it several times to make sure it’s easier to manipulate and bend on the rounded corner of the wooden bars later on.

Secondly, there’s a handy little trick for placing your gripper strips before you start nailing them down. Take a close look and you’ll notice the tiny “teeth” are slightly curved. That curve isn’t just decorative: it’s what helps the teeth grip your fabric as you stretch it over the frame, keeping everything nice and snug. The key? Make sure the teeth are pointing away from the center of the frame. That way, they’ll hold on tight and keep things right where they belong.

Now to attach the grip to the bar of your DIY punch needle frame, I recommend you to start with a nail at the beginning of the grip, followed by 2 staples, then a nail again (see pictures below). Start with the 2,5 cm side of the wooden bar. On this side, the major part of the grip should be attached. Bend the grip over the rounded corner, then nail down the other side of the grip to the bar, as shown in the pictures above. Do this until the end. You can add more nails if needed.

Do this on all four wooden bars, making sure each one is just as carefully prepared as the last, so your DIY punch needle frame gripper is perfectly ready to hold everything in place for your next projects!

Step 3 – Connect the bars together to form the frame

Lay out the bars in a square shape, with the longer bars forming the top and bottom, and the shorter bars forming the sides. Once you’re satisfied with the frame’s alignment, use your metal brackets and screws to secure the corners together. Make sure that the teeth of the grippers are all facing away the middle of the frame before.

And voilà, your DIY punch needle frame gripper is ready to be used!

I’ve been using mine ever since I’ve made it, and it completely improved my punch needle experience. I was struggling big time with the hoops I was using. I would lose all the tension, the fabric would slip away from the hoop and it was a real misery to constantly pull it to taut it. With this DIY punch needle frame gripper, the fabric stays tight, the loops are gorgeous, and I can easily punch needle and do it faster than before. If you encounter the same problem as I did, this is your solution!

Lastly I wanted to share with you that I have 2 FREE punch needle illustrations that you can download now, one is for a coaster, the other one is for wall decor. You can find them on my creative fabrica and gumroad pages here: https://www.creativefabrica.com/designer/atelierdelilah/ and here: https://atelierdelilah.gumroad.com/l/clayys?layout=profile

Credit:

Wall background of the article illustration: Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik