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How to Hoop a Kid's Sweatshirt for Embroidery

Adding homemade embroidery to a child's sweatshirt is a nice way to make a uniquely personal gift. Hooping the sweatshirt properly is important so the pattern will come out as intended and last a long time. The stretchiness of sweatshirt fabric means that if it is improperly prepared for embroidery it may be easy for the stitches to end up misplaced and the pattern to come out wrong. With a little care in advance, you can make sure your embroidery comes out the way you envisioned it.

Things You'll Need

Sweatshirt
Embroidery pattern
Air-erase marker
Ruler
Cutaway fabric stabilizer
Spray adhesive
Embroidery hoop (inner and outer hoops)

Instructions

- 1
  Wash and dry the sweatshirt.
- 2
  Place the embroidery design on the sweatshirt where you want the design to appear. Mark the center point of the design and the midpoints of its top, bottom, left and right edges with an air-erase marker. Bear in mind that if the child's sweatshirt is too small, you may have to align the hoop vertically instead of horizontally and embroider the pattern at a 90 degree rotation from the usual orientation.
- 3
  Draw a line connecting the left and right midpoints (passing through the center) and another line connecting the top and bottom midpoints to create a hoop placement guide.
- 4
  Turn the sweatshirt inside out. Apply spray adhesive to one side of the cutaway stabilizer and smooth the stabilizer onto the inside of the area you intend to embroider. Turn the sweatshirt right side out.
- 5
  Slip the inner hoop inside the sweatshirt under the area you intend to embroider. Align the markings on the outer hoop with the cross you marked on the front of the sweatshirt and press it firmly into place over the inner hoop.

Sewing