Machine Embroidery: Using a Small Hoop for a Big Project

Embroidery machines can be so much fun, and offer lots of great opportunities for making wonderful gifts and unleashing creativity while personalizing tons of different items. But sometimes, the small area of an embroidery machine's hoop capacity can stifle that creativity and keep a project from reaching it's full grand potential. This doesn't have to be the case, and even embroiders with small hoop areas can break free and think big when designing their projects.

The key to using an embroidery machine with a small hoop to make a big project is in correctly planning, aligning, marking and re-hooping the project. This is most easily achieved with digitizing software so the design can be planned for the project from start to finish by the craftsperson. Also, words are the best starting place for this type of project, or designs that are made of all over random patterns that won't suffer if the hoop is off a couple fractions of an inch.

To begin planning an embroidered design larger than the hoop, it's best to break the design into components that will fit into the hoop. The designs should be centered, though when it comes to words, fonts can easily make the design off center in the vertical direction. In that case, the design should be centered, then aligned with a baseline at the bottom of the letters using the arrow keys.

Then all the different design files can be printed from the digitizing software and used to plan the full design. It's best to make sure the guidelines marking the centers of the hoop are printed on design as well. After the designs are printed, they should be laid out carefully in the full pattern of the design and taped together in rows.

In order to mark the fabric for the embroidery, the center lines of each design should be marked clearly with a washable fabric pen, forming a cross hairs for each hooping. Lines of text should be spaced equally, then centered on the line, and the vertical crosshairs marked for each hooping on the particular line of writing. If marking multiple random positions for different designs, it might be helpful to label the marks with the name or color desired in each place. The washable marker is ideal for this, though it should be tested on scraps of the fabric to ensure its easy removal from the finished project.

After all this planning, all that is left to make sure of a successful design is careful and detailed hooping. With each crosshair marked, it is simple to make sure the hoop is aligned correctly on the fabric. After the fabric is in the hoop and it is firmly on the machine, a checklist should be followed to make sure that the design chosen is the correct one in the sequence, that the correct thread color is in the machine, that the design has not been moved from it's chosen place in the hoop field, and that the correct crosshair was chosen when the fabric was placed in the hoop.

It's a straightforward process to make large designs using a small capacity embroidery machine if the design is carefully planned, marked well, and the embroiderer is calm and not rushed while completing the embroidery.