How To Hoop Fleece For Machine Embroidery
If you are looking for comfort and warmth fleece is the best fabric for any type of garment. Whether you are sewing or embroidery, fleece won’t disappoint. Fleece is available in different types of colors and thicknesses making it easy to work with fabric for various embroidery projects.
How Do You Hoop Fleece For Embroidery?
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Before you embroider your fleece fabric, you will need to hoop it for tautness and stability.
To hoop your fleece embroidery you need a large enough hoop to hold the amount of fabric you want to embroider.
Secondly, you need a large piece of cut-away stabilizer. Place the fleece fabric on the stabilizer.
Then place a piece of water-soluble stabilizer on top of the fleece. Now, hoop the tree layers ready to embroider.
Step-by-step Guide How To Hoop Fleece For Embroidery
Method 1. Using Plastic Rectangular Hoops
Step 1. You will need a fleece fabric, water-soluble stabilizer, cut-away stabilizer, and a hoop. Make sure that your hoop is as large as the embroidery space you require for your fleece. This is also the case for all the stabilizers that you need. You need a stabilizer that is larger than the amount of space needed for embroidery.
Fleece stretches and gets back to normal quickly. This is how you test the quality of the fleece fabric that you are embroidering on. A cut-away stabilizer is the best stabilizer for stretchy fabrics. It will hold your fleece on the hoop as you stabilize.
Step 2. Place your cutaway stabilizer on your working surface. Make sure that it is slightly larger than the area of the embroidery you need on your fleece fabric. Spread it out well and make sure it is flat on the surface.
Step 3. Next, place your fleece fabric on top of the cut-away stabilizer. Press it flat with your hand onto the stabilizer. Make sure that you have more of the stabilizer than you need. This ensures that your fabric doesn’t move around to areas without a stabilizer as embroidery takes place.
Step 4. Place a water-soluble stabilizer on top of the fleece fabric. The water-soluble stabilizer in this case acts as a topping that protects the fleece fabric. It prevents the embroidery stitches from going too deep into the fleece and spoiling it.
You can use a basting stitch on the water-soluble topping to hold it in place on the fleece and lower stabilizer. Or, you can use temporary adhesive to fix the water-soluble topping stabilizer.
Step 5. Now, hoop all three layers together. Bring the top part of the hoop onto the water-soluble stabilizer. Place the other part of the hoop onto your working surface ready to receive the other part. Lift your fleece and its stabilizers and place them on the other part of the hoop as precisely as possible. Then screw and tighten the hoop around the three layers.
Hooping all the three layers together ensures that your fleece doesn’t move around while embroidering takes place. It also ensures that there are no gaps in the embroidery on your fleece.
You have now hooped your fleece and it is now ready for embroidery.
Step 6. Load your hooped fleece onto the embroidery machine. Make sure that you are using sharp embroidery needles for your embroidery. Also, consider the color of your embroidery design and the color of your fleece fabric. Make sure the colors match. Use light-colored threads to embroider light-colored fleece fabrics.
Step 7. When you have finished embroidering, remove your hoop from the embroidery machine. Unhoop your fleece fabric. Tear off the water-soluble stabilizer topping. Do this gently to make sure that you don’t destroy the embroidery stitches on the fleece.
You will find that your fleece has a ridge caused by the tight hold of the hoop around the embroidered area. The first time you wash your fleece, this ridge will clear on its own. Also, any remaining water-soluble stabilizer will dissolve in the water at this time.
Method 2. Using Bamboo Hoops
Step 1. To hoop your fleece on bamboo hoops, the first thing you need to do is to unscrew the hoop. The bamboo hoop has two layers of round rings held together by a screw. You can’t work with the hoop while the two layers are fixed together.
Step 2. Choose the size of a hoop to use depending on the size of the embroidery you want to make. For larger embroidery pieces, use larger hoops. Hoops are available in different sizes and materials. Bamboo hoops are suitable for fleece fabrics as they are smooth and firm.
Step 3. Place a cut-away stabilizer on your working surface. It should be slightly larger than the hoop and the fleece.
Step 4. Place your fleece fabric onto the cut-away stabilizer. If need be, you can use a temporary adhesive to hold the fleece onto the cut-away stabilizer. Make sure that the fleece and stabilizer are placed flat on each other.
Step 5. Add a water-soluble topping onto the fleece. You now have three layers ready to be hooped for embroidery.
Step 6. Place the three layers of stabilizer and fleece onto the lower ring of the hoop.
Step 7. Now, place the top ring onto the layers. This enhances the tension of the layers of fabric in readiness for embroidery.
Step 8. Wind the screw on the bamboo hoops and increase the tautness on the fleece and the stabilizer layers for better embroidery results. You have successfully hooped your fleece onto the ring bamboo hoops and you are ready to embroider.
How To Get Good Tension On Your Embroidery Hoop
When embroidering you want to have the fabric you are embroidering on as taut as possible. This ensures that the stitches made during embroidery hold on to the fabric strongly. Without good tension on the fabric being embroidered, it will be difficult for the embroidery to be perfectly stitched onto the fabric.
So, to get the tension you require, you need to have your fabric pulled tightly over the embroidery hoops. Make sure that the whole fabric is evenly pulled all around.
Once you have evenly pulled your fabric on the embroidery hoops, you can enhance the tension by tightening the hoop screws. Hoops are closed with a screw. The tighter the screws are shut the tauter the fabric and hence the tension need for perfect embroidery.
When you are working with sheer fabrics for embroidery, they also need to be as taut as possible. Using a hoop makes sure that you don’t cut the fabrics. Because the fabrics are thin, you may need extra fabric to support it on the hoop.
Binding the hoop is a technique that involves wrapping a different type of fabric around the hoop to ensure that you don’t have to pull thin fabrics too much on the hoop. It helps to reduce breakage and creases in fabrics and helps enhance tension on thin fabrics.
Types Of Hoops To Use For Embroidery
There are many types of embroidery hoops that you can use. Embroidery hoops are made up of two rings. The rings of embroidery hoops are of different sizes. The larger ring, which is placed on top of the fabric to be embroidered has a screw that is tightened to enhance the tension of the fabric being embroidered.
They are available in both wood and plastic and also in as many different shapes. You can get round hoops, oval hoops, square and triangular hoops.
Another type of embroidery hoop available is the quilting hoop. This is a larger hoop than an embroidery hoop and is used for quilting projects.
If you are embroidering small projects, you can use handheld hoops. These hoops are suitable for smaller projects such as monogramming fabrics and small embroidery designs on T-shirts.
Crafting has always been a deep-seated passion of mine, one that has flourished and evolved over the years.
I've dedicated considerable time to both studying and practicing in the realm of fashion and sewing, amassing a wealth of experience and skills.
It brings me great joy to share these insights and experiences with you all, hoping to inspire and foster a similar passion for the art of sewing.
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