ImagesMagUK_August_20

T here are few tasks so deceptively simple and yet undeniably important in the world of machine embroidery as hooping. No matter how well-digitised your design or how well-appointed your equipment, if you can’t get a garment securely and correctly affixed to the pantograph, you can’t embroider. Hoops are intended to hold the workpiece in place, keeping the material flat, fixed in position and, in concert with stabilisers, dimensionally stable. Any hooping arrangement that doesn’t fix and stabilise the embroidery area is an imperfect implementation at best. Luckily, there are more aids and equipment in the industry now than there have ever been, allowing you to hold and stabilise almost every garment and accessory imaginable. Supported by everything from improvements on traditional tubular frames to magnetic variants, lever-driven and pneumatic clamping systems, and even speciality fixtures for specific garments, straps and out-of-the-ordinary placements, you’re spoiled for choice in how to get your work under the needles. With an understanding of the types of frames available, a quick word on stabilisers, and tips for tough materials and common troubles found in hooping, you can be prepared to place any item perfectly and refine your hooping process. Hoop size and type All too often, the question of hoop size is all about having enough space to fit the design you want to stitch. This can encourage embroiderers to use a larger hoop than is strictly necessary to give themselves plenty of room when stitching out a design. Be warned, however, that the apparent safety of using a larger hoop size can actually lead poorer results. While you should remain mindful of running your presser foot into the inner Shown here is a hooping fixture set for a left chest design on a large shirt. The bottom ring of a magnetic hoop is placed in the fixture awaiting stabiliser Once in place on your machine, the magnetic hoop runs no differently than any traditional hoop, and provides uniform tension throughout the design area Commercial hooping fixtures have precise markings and indexing systems like these to allow you both to use a known good setting for placing your fixture initially, and to record that position for use in future orders from your customer. This precision makes hooping more repeatable hoop ring, the right hoop for any job is always going to be the smallest one that comfortably fits your decoration. The less material you have to maintain in the hoop, the less distortion and shifting you’ll see in your design. Those of you who have been KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES www.images-magazine.com 82 images AUGUST 2020 Happy hooping Great hooping is the foundation of excellent embroidery. Erich Campbell gives an overview of the hooping process, including how to select and use the right equipment for your needs The most common hooping mistake Hooped garments should not be ‘drum tight’. Materials, particularly performancewear and materials that stretch readily, should not be stretched beyond the amount of stretch experienced during normal during wear. If a stretchy material is stretched to a point where it will no longer stretch and is then embroidered, the area under the embroidery is fixed at that level of stretch, secured by the stitching; upon the hoop being released, the surrounding material will gather around the design, creating ripples, puckering and distortions. This is often referred to as ‘rebound’. Material should not be easily stretched when stabilised and hooped, but stretching material to its absolute limit is unadvisable.