Monday, September 20, 2010

Centering T-shirts

Several people have had questions about centering/hooping t-shirts and other items for ebmroidery. I know there are lots of different methods, but I wanted to share with you how I do it. This is a quick, no-measure method that gets your designs where you want them every time!

First, hoop your stabilizer (I usually use two sheets).



Then, turn your tee inside out with the front facing down.



Fold your shirt in half, matching side seams, under arm seams and hem.


Lay your folded shirt on top of your hooped stabilizer with the part that attaches to the machine at the top (for landscape oriented designs like the example I am doing) or left (for portrait oriented designs).


Match the center fold line up with the notches on your hoop.



Spray the right, exposed side of the stabilizer with temporary spray adhesive (like 505) and lay out that side of the shirt.
Next, lift up the left side of the shirt, and spray with temporary adhesive.



Lay that side back out. Pin around the perimeter of the hoop to secure the shirt. Pin excess shirt out of the way. The bulk of the rest of the shirt is either on the left, over the arm of the machine, or at the top. Now you can embroider without having to worry about the other parts of the shirt getting caught by the needle. And no hoop burn from hooping the knit.



Be sure to check out
http://www.appliquechick.com/ for designs! We are adding new ones every week!

1 comment:

  1. This is a great method, I've been doing the same thing for a while now because I got tired of taking things in and out of the hoop to get them centered.

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