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Hooping Helpers |
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Read
Please: These tips are original and exclusive to OPW Mall.
Feel free to use them for your personal embroidering and quilting
needs, however, it is strictly prohibited to publish them without
permission. |
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LINKS TO PDF
INSTRUCTIONS |
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- Hooping (Basic): For
tips on basic embroidery hooping techniques, sign in (HERE)
or sign up (HERE)
for the Members Only area and click "Hooping Tips" in the
FREE TUTORIALS section.
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- Hooping (Multi-hoop):
For a complete instructional pdf on multi-hooping techniques, sign
in (HERE)
or sign up (HERE)
for the Members Only area and click "Multi-Hooping" in the
FREE TUTORIALS section.
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Watch for new tips
as they are added to the top of this list. |
- Basting the layers fabric and the stabilizer together will
stop the fabric from shifting while embroidering.
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- Temporary adhesive sprays can leave sticky patches on your
hoops. To avoid this, make a shield to protect the hoop. Place
your hoop over a cardboard and cut a rectangular frame with a
window about half inch smaller than the centre of the hoop. Before
spraying the adhesive, place the frame over the hoop and hold it
firmly in place to expose the fabric to be embroidered while you
spray.
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- Placement templates are available and often come with machine
embroidery hoops. It is always helpful to print the design and
play with the placement before hopping the design. Machine
embroidery hoops include placement marks on the inner ring of the
hoop to assist in placement.
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The best hooping technique - not too tight and not too loose. If
you need to make adjustments to take up slack once the fabric is
hooped, don't get carried away and stretch the fabric too tight!
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Being limited to a 4" x 4" hoop
doesn't mean you can't embellish an entire jacket back or make a
dress length really sizzle. Any size hoop is still going to
require that you plan out the positioning for the overall look.
Don't be afraid to "piece together" something bigger because you
might have to re-hoop once or even twice. Practice pin-basting
the project to the stabilizer on smaller items so that, when it
comes to doing something big, you'll have the confidence to put
it together without having to leave hoop marks on an already
embroidered design.
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- A simple
project becomes more personal if you add a message. Put those
design fonts you've been collecting to work on your next project,
and don't feel limited by your 4" x 4" hoop. You don't have to
hoop it all at one time to spell out your thoughts. Experiment
with putting down the words and then adding the design in a second
step. If you can use pins or fuse/baste your project to the hooped
stabilizer, then you don't even have to worry about leaving hoop
marks in previous embroidery stitches.
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- On hard to hoop items, put wonder tape of the bottom of your
hoop. Place hoop on your fabric and it sticks. Slide
your bottom hoop under the garment and secure to top hoop.
Your fabric should not move.
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- I've recently been reminded of a
need for the knowledge of stabilizer basics for the best
embroidered projects. I've been reading stories about
crafters using paper towels, plastic wrap, and all types of other
paper goods to stabilize. Please, from a digitizer who puts
a lot of time into creating quality designs, use a quality
stabilizer that is best suited to both the design and the project
piece. Tear away stabilizers are fine for light, woven fabrics
and can be ideal when you don't want the itchy remnants of a
cut-away on the back side of the embroidery. If you're
working with stretch knits, I can't stress enough to use a quality
cut-away stabilizer for best results.
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