Impressions - January 2019 - 46

Placement stickers contain crosshairs, making it
easy to position the machine's needle in the center
to ensure proper placement.
mounting adapters for a wide variety of
multi-needle machines.
4. Robot Frame: Embroidering shoes
is no easy feat, but a Robot Frame can
result in a quality job and trouble-free
experience.The tool consists of two adjustable, high-pressure clamps that firmly
hold thick shoes like cleats and leather
boots during the embroidery process.You
also can get creative to embroider other
difficult-to-hoop items, such as bags.
5. Gen 2 Cap Frame: If you are
passionate about embroidering hats,
HoopTech's Gen 2 cap frame could be a
valuable tool for your shop.This specialty
cap frame expands the embroidery area
to allow you to stitch closer to the hat's
bill without experiencing needle breaks.
The frame also contains clips to hold the
stabilizer when hooping caps, simplifying
the hooping process. Overall, this tool
makes hooping and embroidering caps
much more efficient, saving businesses
money on production time and potential
mistakes.
6. HoopMaster: This tool is helpful
for embroiderers who struggle with consistent design placement. This hooping
station's placement guides reveal exactly
where to place a design with respect to
the shirt and hoop size. Because of these
capabilities, the Hoopmaster will cut the
time it takes to complete bulk orders,
thus maximizing productivity.
7. Mighty Hoops: If you own these
hoops, you probably use them for embroidering anything. Why? They essentially
hoop the material themselves.Although
they have a similar shape of regular hoops,
they contain magnets that instantly cling
together when they meet.This saves time
and allows you to easily hoop thick items
like bags.
8. 8-in-1 Hoop Set: The 8-in-1 hoop
set consists of one master bracket and eight
specialty hoops of different sizes that allow
you to embroider on an extensive list of
items. This tool allows embroiderers to
"float" the material over the hoop using
adhesive stabilizer, rather than hooping
it traditionally. It is ideal for managing
areas on apparel with limited embroidery
space, such as pockets, sleeves, cuffs, baby
clothes and more.
P.46

The Gen 2 cap frame expands
the embroidery area to allow you to
stitch closer to the hat's bill without
experiencing needle breaks.

TARGET PRACTICE
Mighty Hoops also help reduce hoop burn, which are the marks left behind by the hoop on your
fabric. This makes them ideal when embroidering delicate substrates, such as satin, that are prone
to hoop burn.

The 8-in-1 hoop set also provides a
simple solution for embroidering the
back and sides of caps. In addition to its
versatility, these hoops also help prevent
embroidery issues such as puckering on
knit items like beanies. Usually, when you
embroider knits, the material tends to
stretch when hooped, causing the fabric
to bunch up around the embroidered
design. However, when you float the
material using the 8-in-1 hoop, you can
maintain the material's original properties
to ensure the best-possible embroidery.
9. Placement Stickers: Placement
stickers provide simple and effective ways
of marking design placement. Usually,
embroiderers make placement marks using water-soluble pens and even chalk,
which can be a hassle to remove.These
reusable placement stickers keep garments
free of residue and marks.
Another major bonus: The stickers
contain crosshairs, making it easy to position the machine's needle in the center
to ensure proper placement. Once the
needle is centered in the crosshair, it is

i m p r e s s i o n s m a g . c o m January 2019

almost impossible to have a failed attempt
at stitching within the desired area.
10. Tension Gauge: In machine
embroidery, proper thread tension is
crucial to ensure smooth operation.
Tension gauges allow you to measure
your machine's thread tension and adjust it until reaching the desired setting.
Top-thread tension gauges are hooked to
the top thread from the presser foot. By
pulling on the thread, you can determine
the tension the embroidery machine is
applying to the thread.
Both top- and bobbin-thread tension
gauges can be used for both commercial
and home embroidery machines, and are
available at plenty of embroidery-supply
stores. 
Raegan Daley is a content specialist at Ricoma Embroidery Machines. The company creates blog and
video content to enable both beginner and expert
embroiderers to start or grow their custom apparel
businesses. For more information or to comment
on this article, email Raegan at raegan@ricoma.us.

http://www.impressionsmag.com

Impressions - January 2019

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