Have you ever hooped a shirt more than once? Have you ever spent a lot of time and money on a special project just to have it look a little off when you take it out of your hoop? These will always be issues if you are not using a consistent method to your hooping techniques. This issue really hit home for me when I pulled out one of my early embroidery projects and noticed that it was practically on the shoulder! It also made me wonder how many shirts I had done in my earlier years in the industry that we this far off. I must say in my own defense back then that there weren’t the tools and resources available to me that there is today. Thank god for the internet, right?
Ultimately the placement of your embroidery is very important as such is the alignment. I don’t think there is an embroiderer out there that didn’t pull something out of the hoop and realized that it looked like it was running up hill or down. The best piece of advise that I got to help with this came from my husband who is into wood working. He said to me: “Honey you need to measure twice and cut once”. Of course this is a golden rule for wood working and I believe we should all apply to every embroidery project that we tackle because after all you really just want to embroider the garment or project once and I have yet to meet an embroiderer that enjoys removing stitching!
So as promised here are some common garments and the placement measurements for each. Please keep in mind that each shirt manufacturer is different and that these can vary.
Polo Shirt, T-Shirts, Sweatshirts with a small Design
7.5 to 9 inches down from where the collar and the shoulder seam come together.
T-Shirts & Sweatshirts with Full Front Design
The top of the design should be 3-3.5 inches down from the bottom of the neck. In order to figure this accurately you will need to know the distance from the center point of the design to the top.
Over Pocket
Center on the pocket not the shoulder seem as previously mentioned. You also may need to adjust the machine form the center point of the center depending on your hoop.
Jackets
6-8 inches down and 3.5-4 inches from the center
It is important to understand that these are based off the top of your design. Each design that you sew will have a different height and therefore will need to account to that by taking these numbers then adding to them half your design height in order to find the center of the design. So for example if your design is 10 inches tall your center point for your design would be approximately 8 inches from the bottom of the neck for full font embroidery.
