Hula Hoop Display Rack

I did a little searching for a hoop rack and found a few references to them.  Some people seem to use clothing racks and I found at least one example of a PVC rack that someone had made.  My handy husband and I were able to come up with a similar design for a PVC hula hoop display rack.

Together we figured out how many connectors we would need as well as how much PVC tubing (50').  We decided on 3/4" PVC with the thicker inner wall.  The project didn't cost too much to make and took an evening to cut and assemble.  My husband used a hand saw and we didn't end up gluing it together.  The measurements were based on hoop sizes for the width.  The height of various parts were decided based on testing with hoops.

The rack seems to work very well for my hoops.  I decided to remove the PVC lettering with acetone and decorate the rack with my business name and gaffer tape.

After it was made, I measured my mini van and the rack width and height.  Fortunately, it will fit assembled!  That might have been a good consideration when designing the rack.  The rack width is 42.5" and the height is about 41" and the length is 47.5".

More Hooping Jewelry

After making the hoop ornaments, I hoped to make a pendant for myself.  There were smaller 1 1/2" curtain rings, but they seemed too big.

I ordered some smaller black metal rings in 1" and 1/2" sizes.  They both looked very hoop like with tape covering them.  Using my new prism tape gave them an even neater look.

Hula hoop pendants were made and are proudly worn by the girls in my family.  Perhaps someone else will like the larger sizes at my Etsy store.

Hula Hoop Necklaces with 1/2", 1" and 1.5" rings

Hooping meets Babywearing

The one thing I always found a bit challenging with hooping is having a baby or toddler around. For one they can walk into a hoop and get hurt and secondly, they might just need to be held at the very moment that I want to be hooping.

As my baby has gotten older, I wondered if I could hold her a bit as I hooped. I first tried her on my shoulders. It worked ok, but she didn't always like it or feel secure up there.

Just recently she really needed me to hold her and I really wanted to hoop for a couple more songs.

My girls had been playing "puppy" with one of my baby carriers and it was still out. It is called a wrap and is just a long piece of fabric, almost six yards long and close to twenty inches wide. I wondered if I could actually tie my toddler up high enough and hoop at the same time.

It did work and I got a great workout. She weighs twenty-six pounds and I certainly felt it!

Hooping Meets Babywearing

I thought I'd write down what I did in case any other hoopers find themselves really wanting to hula hoop with a toddler. Please always use your best judgment when considering Babywearing while hooping.

Find the center of the wrap (1) and place it high on your chest (2).

Bring the long ends to the back and cross them behind your back (3) and then over each shoulder (4).

Pick up your child (5) and place them in the center of the wrap (6) while still holding on to the child.

Grab each long end from over your shoulders and hold them tight while also keeping an arm on the child (7).

Cross the wrap over the child's back (8) and under their legs towards your back. Secure the wrap behind you for a moment.

Now reach around yourself to each side of yourself and tuck the child's legs into the wrap (9&10). My child is 21 months and her legs are quite long. I do not know at which ages this would work well. You will have to make your best judgement.

Toddler all wrapped up in a wrap

While keeping the straps tight again and keeping an arm around the child, untie the back and tighten if necessary. My wrap is long enough to cross over in the back and then bring the ties around front for a square knot (11&12). The child should feel very secure and the wrap should be reasonably tight.

These instructions are provided to give you ideas. I am not a professional and do not accept liability. Please use good common sense. Thank you.

The Minimalist Hula Hoop Fort

Once we started having a bunch of hoops around the house, my kids started making hula hoop castles or forts. They had learned about them in gym class. They are fun to play inside, topple over and can have a blanket or sheet over the structure for a secret hideout.

My sister saw a picture of one with my girls inside and thought she'd love some hoops to make a fort at her house.

My daughter often would use all our hoops for her castle. I wondered how many you really need. It seems that six is commonly used. Five works pretty well in the grass. I wondered if I could make it work with four.

When I set up four in the house, it looked ok until anyone came close and then it toppled over. I decided to make a little Velcro strap to hold the two hoops making an upside down "V". It worked! Four hoops and a little Velcro becomes the minimalist hoop fort. This little fort also makes my niece and nephew very happy. :)

Hula Hoop Ornament

Another Google search did not yield what I was looking for...so I made it myself! I ended up with metal shower curtain rings, removed the small hooks and applied cut hoop tape. This one is a gift, can't wait to make another hoop ornament to put on our tree!

Hula Hoop Ornament

Patchwork Hoop for Kessa

Kessa always wants to help when I am taping hoops. Sometimes I give her a scrap of tape hoping to appease her. She tries to find a place on the hoop for the scrap of tape.

This gave me an idea. I hadn't made a hoop just for Kessa before. She's not even 20 months yet. But she has been practicing with the hand hoops I made and is getting quite good at getting the hoop to spin around her a few times.

I cut and connected a small hoop for Kessa and told her it was for her. Then I sat down to do the taping and cut a small piece off. I kept cutting off little pieces alternating colors. We kept this up for a while. Kessa was delighted to be working on her hoop and actually applying tape. As the hoop was getting covered it reminded me of the children's book character, Elmer the Patchwork Elephant. She lost interest for a little while and I continued with the patchwork design. It was also a good use of my orange that was almost gone.

Patchwork Hoop

Hoop Jewelry

Having spent a great evening hooping with my daughter, I still had hooping on my mind in the morning. I thought having some hoop jewelry would be really neat and a super conversation starter!

I did a search for hula hoop earrings and didn't see anything like I had in mind.

As I was considering possible hoops for earrings, I remembered the black jelly bracelets of my youth. They would make neat hoops too.

Along with my toddler, we started at Lowes. I planned to check out o-rings for earrings. As soon as I was looking at them, my toddler called out hula hoop! They were perfect.

I picked up some jelly bracelets too.

Once home I took my hoop tape and cut it down to 1/8" and wrapped the "mini hoops". They are all very cute!

Mini hoop earrings and mini hoop bracelets

Hoop castle

The kids learned about hula hoop castles in gym class. You only need four to make it work, but if you are seven years old and have tons of hoops at your disposal, they ALL can be used!

When not used in castle construction, you can see us all hooping in the yard and inviting our neighbor friends over for hooping fun!

More Hooping!

My whole family is hooping! I finally decided to go ahead and make myself the exercise style hoop that I wanted to make more than a year ago.

Back to Lowes. This time buying 100 feet of 160psi 3/4" black irrigation tubing. I wasn't sure how many hoops I'd be making, but knew I wanted one or two and maybe these would make perfect gifts.

More cutting, heating, connecting and taping. I have become more proficient and confident in my taping and tried out some different patterns and mixing wide and narrow tape. The wide tape I just tore in half and the other half just stayed stuck on the roll.

My daughter had a birthday party coming up and I thought, why not! Hoops for everyone! Back to the Lowes, ordered more tape and more hoops were made!

I also decided to work with the mini 1/2" 125psi tubing for hand hooping and performance hooping. I see a potential talent show act in our future.

Hula Hoops

Well I guess we're not calling them "hula" hoops anymore, but it's sometimes hard to remember.

I learned about this style of hoop form a friend of mine who very successfully changed her lifestyle and lost more than 100 pounds.  Hooping started it for her.  I thought why not?

But it took me more than a year to actually make my own and the first ones weren't for me at all.  My little Brownie Girl scouts come down to the cafeteria on Friday afternoons after a busy week of school.  They would like nothing more than to race around the cafeteria for an hour, but that is not on the agenda.  I wondered if these new, improved, exercisey hoops would help.

I headed over to Lowes for black irrigation tubing.  I found what I was looking for and perplexed the staff.  They had never heard of making hula hoops out of irrigation tubing.  I started with 100 feet of 3/4" 100psi tubing.  I learned about making hoops form the many tutorials out there.  I read about different options for tape and decided to order the gaffer tape.

Both Jason Unbound and Karen Tiede have helpful tutorials and information on hoop making.

My husband already had a pair of cutters for the tubing and also a heat gun which made the connectors slide in easily.  Taping went pretty well.  I certainly got better as I went along.

Ten hoops later and we were hooping!  I made 9 smaller ones for the girls and one big one for me.

The Brownie Girl Scouts LOVED the hula hoops!  It made the transition from school to scouting go much more smoothly.  We also used the hoops at the end of the meeting when kids are being picked up.