BELGIUM — The first time expecting parents see their ultrasound, it can be an emotional and compelling moment. Now, one Wisconsinite is capturing the moment forever with a needle and some thread.
"It's just a unique way to express a lot of the emotions that go behind having a baby," D'Lacey Eichinger, the fiber artist behind Home and Hoop Co, which makes embroidered gifts, said.
Eichinger has been making embroidered ultrasound gifts for the past three years through her online shop Home and Hoop Co. She said commemorating that first photo of your child is more impactful when it's a, "physical object that you can touch."
Ultrasounds turned into embroidered gifts. #crafty pic.twitter.com/8Ru6LL8AHO
— James Groh (@JamesGroh_) December 4, 2019
She also makes embroidered wedding bouquets, which she said has a little more detail to them. That makes it a easier to reconstruct, rather than a ultrasound photo which is already not incredibly distinct. However, she has a key to making those embroideries come to life.
"I sketch out the major geographic markers, if you will," she said.
The later the pregnancy the more detailed she can be. In some of them, you can ever see the ribs of the child in the embroidery.
Each ultrasound starts at $60. She makes about 20 a year, and could take up to eight hours to stitch depending on the detail. She can do it for any stage in the pregnancy too.
"Just a few weeks to several months in.”
There’s a reason she was drawn to embroidery, and why a picture doesn’t cut it for her.
"Something that's truly unique is taking a blank canvas of just black fabric and solely white thread and stitching that first picture of your child.”
She said people get them as ways to commemorate their own child, as a way to reveal to others they are having a baby, or as gifts to expecting families.
Since these are hand crafted pieces of art they can be passed down and preserved forever.
"Kind of a keepsake or a modern heirloom," she said.
