SLIMLINE 1 & 2

For embroidering on everything from baby clothes to luggage.

Rail mounted Clamps with window sizes ranging from 2” round up to 12”X 9”. Designed for singlehead use (but in some cases the sllimline 1 can be made tubular) .

The Slimline Clamping Systems are the lowest profile embroidery clamps on the market. The patented low profile design is only 1” high so it fits easily under the needle bar throughout the entire range of machine movements. The flat spring steel clamping arms maintain pressure on fabric and backing through a wide range of fabrics and thicknesses.

There are two Clamping Chassis sizes available for the Slimline Series of embroidery clamps, each with a set of available windows to fit the two different chassis sizes. The SLIM LINE clamps mount to the drive bar of your embroidery machine using the same mounting holes that mount the tubular arms for your plastic hoops. Mounting adapters specially designed for your machine type and size are attached to the chassis and then the assembly attaches to your machine. Hoop Tech manufactures mounting adapters for all major industrial size machines as well as smaller machines such as Brother PR & Baby Lock machines.

Hooping Fabric and Stabilizer: End Goal

The end goal of a successful hooping is to have all layers oriented properly and fit tautly and with even tension inside the hoop. There should be no puckers, wrinkles, or stretching.

Don’t worry too much if you’re not exactly centered, though, if your machine embroidery design doesn’t take up the entire embroidery field. Most embroidery machines allow you to rotate designs and move them around for perfect placement.

Don’t Make These Beginner Embroidery Hooping Mistakes

Here’s a quick list of common beginner hooping mistakes that can cause many issues.

1. Pulling fabric while it’s in the hoop and causing distortion
2. Hooping too tightly or too loosely
3. Marking improperly or hooping items in the wrong direction
4. Picking the wrong hoop size
5. Hooping two layers accidentally
6. Hooping only one layer but forgetting to move the bottom layer out of the way and stitching them together

If your fabric is not hooped properly, you may run into a whole slew of problems, such as b obbin thread nests and the top thread breaking, uncentered designs, stitches in the design not aligning properly (poor registration), h oles or puckering in the fabric, and h oop burn (or permanent creases) in the fabric.

How to Hoop Fabric for Embroidery (Tips & Tricks)

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Learning how to hoop fabric correctly when machine embroidering is one of the most important aspects of ensuring professional results.

Hooping can be tricky trying to align your stabilizer, fabric, and hoop all at the same time. It’s even worse if you’re on a slippery surface and your hoop is moving all over the place.

Therefore, let’s discuss how to hoop fabric for embroidery! There are different embroidery hooping techniques and tricks, so I’ll show you a couple of methods so you can see what works best. I’ll also discuss how to float fabric if it won’t fit in a hoop.

Table of Contents

Parts of an Embroidery Machine Hoop

There are two main pieces of a home embroidery machine hoop. Different brands and different machines have slightly different hoops, but above is my Brother embroidery hoop.

There’s a bottom, outside hoop frame, and then a top, inside hoop frame. Frames have a definite top and bottom, so make sure you know which way goes up and which down.

On the bottom hoop frame, there is a bracket on the left side where the hoop attaches to the embroidery arm. On the base of the outside hoop, there’s also a small screw that will tighten and untighten to increase or decrease the tension on the hoop contents, allowing the hoop to accommodate different fabric thicknesses.

When prepping your embroidery project, you will place your fabric and the correct stabilizer between these inside and outside hoops.

Some more deluxe hoops have a screw that moves up and down for easier access. You will hoop the same way with these hoops, just make sure to press the screw piece down parallel to the flat surface when you’re done tightening it.

Lastly, even more deluxe hoops have a lever of sorts to tighten the hoop. I don’t like hooping using the lever, as it adds odd tension to my embroidery projects when I tighten it. I prefer to keep it tightened at all times when hooping and only unloosen it to release the hoop’s contents.