Impressions - June/July 2016 - 45

Embroidering a monogram
near the right edge of a shirt
pocket involves manipulating
the pocket, using backing and
hooping the pocket correctly.

can manipulate the pocket and hoop it
in such a manner that the monogram will
be right at the edge.
First, cut the backing to cover the hoop's
ring from side to side and long enough
to fold in half and have it go from top to
bottom, front and back. Next, place the
ring into the fold and set it aside. Pull the
right side of the pocket over toward the left
side of the pocket. Straighten and smooth
the pocket, making space for the hoop's
ring. Slide the ring - with the backing
over it - into the space of the pocket and
place the top of the hoop into the ring.
You will have extra backing on the backside that can be pulled down, keeping the
shirt from being stitched together. Now
you are ready to stitch.
Hooping Striped Garments: Making
sure your garments are hooped properly is very important. A garment's fabric
weave can cause pulling if it's not hooped
straight, and adding a stripe to the equation
can spell disaster.The smaller the stripe, the
harder it is to ensure it is hooped straight.
A simple trick will make hooping
striped and pocketed garments, and even

waffle-weave fabrics, easy. Place a piece
of tape from one side of the hoop to the
other using its arm as a guide. Now, you
can see when the stripes, pocket or weave
is straight and ready to hoop.
You can leave the tape on the hoop
while it's on the machine. I like the idea of
being able to see that the stripe is straight
all the way across the hoop and doesn't
dip anywhere in between.
Precise Embroidery: I recently was asked
to embroider on the belts of bathrobes.To
ensure the embroidery was in the same
place on every belt, I hooped a large piece
of sticky backing and marked it using a
ruler. I placed the ruler against the metal
side arm of the hoop and drew a line from
top to bottom. Now, all I had to do was
place the belts on the lines and I was sure
they would be straight and also in the
same spot on every belt.
Depending on the width of what you
are embroidering, you may be able to hoop
five or six items together. If you want to
use a water-soluble topping, all you need
to do is press it firmly onto the sticky
backing to hold it in place.

Another way to achieve exact embroidery is to print a picture of the design at
100%, cut it out and place it on the garment. If you can't determine the center
of the design on the printout, fold it top
to bottom, then side to side, and that will
give you the center point. Mark it with a
pen and, after placing it on the garment,
you will know exactly where to place the
needle to start the design.
When embroidering difficult items,
adjust your pricing for all the extra work
involved and make sure the customer
knows this is something you don't do every
day. Instead of turning down complex jobs,
try coming up with a way to complete
the order on time without adding a lot
of extra cost and steps to the process. 
Connie R. Smith has been in the embroidery
industry for more than 30 years and has been
an industry speaker and consultant. She also is
an award-winning digitizer. For more information
or to comment on this article, email Connie
at lickatstitch@yahoo.com.

JUNE/JULY 2016

P.45
Impressions - June/July 2016

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