How to Hoop a Children's T-Shirt for Embroidery

Sew colorful embroidery designs on a child's T-shirt.

Embellished T-shirts can be expensive, especially shirts with high-quality embroidered details. If you have sewing skills, you might be able to decorate T-shirts with the designs you desire. Whether you embroider with a machine or by hand, one of the first steps is to hoop a children's T-shirt. With careful fabric preparation, your finished embroidery results should look stunning.

Things You'll Need

• Embroidery hoop
• Medium-weight stabilizer (cutaway variety)
• Scissors
• Fabric adhesive spray

Instructions

1. Determine the size of the embroidery design you wish to sew. Use an embroidery hoop that is about 2 inches larger than the design on each side. Cut out a piece of stabilizer that is slightly larger than the embroidery hoop.

2. Turn the T-shirt inside out and position it on a flat work surface with the embroidery location facing up. Smooth the fabric carefully.

3. Spray one side of the stabilizer (either side) with the fabric adhesive spray and place the stabilizer onto the wrong side of the fabric over the embroidery area. Smooth the stabilizer carefully over the fabric, removing any wrinkles in the fabric as you apply it.

4. Unscrew the embroidery hoop and separate the inner and outer hoops. The inner hoop is slightly smaller than the outer hoop.

5. Turn the T-shirt right-side out and insert the outer hoop inside the T-shirt, positioning it over the stabilizer at the embroidery location.

6. Position the inner embroidery hoop over the embroidery location on the outside of the T-shirt. Align the hoops together with the T-shirt and stabilizer fabrics between them. Make sure you have centered the hoops perfectly over the embroidery area and do not stretch the T-shirt fabric more than just slightly, or the embroidery might look warped after you finish.

7. Tighten the screw on the outer embroidery hoop inside the T-shirt to secure the hoops together and create firm tension in the fabric inside the hoops.

8. Attach the hoops to an embroidery machine or complete the embroidery design by hand.

References

• Embroidery Library Projects: Embroidering on T-Shirts
• "Machine Embroidery with Confidence: A Beginner's Guide"; Nancy Zieman; 2005