Fleece headband/ear warmers

[Donna B]

First off, I am new to embroidery so if this is an obvious dumb question to seasoned embroiders, I apologize in advance! I have been visiting and reading this site for months so this was the first place I thought of to seek advice. I have an order for 24 fleece headband/ear warmers. I purchased them through San Mar. Is there a trick to hooping these so my design always has the same amount of room above and below the design on the band that goes across the top of your head. I am using an 18cm round hoop with full backing. I was thinking I would just try my best and tweak it until I get a centered one sewn out and then make a mark on my hoop showing where I should line up the top of the band so that the rest are centered. I have an Amaya XT and DS9.

[signman]

Line the top hoop with masking tape-so you can mark the final placement of the headband and be able to remove the marks afterwards!
Use your 'trace' command to help center the headband.
I would use the speedframe setup for this-like doing the knit beanies...much faster than using a hoop. Same thing-masking tape on the edges of the frame to make your marks on.
Another trick to finding the lineup...hoop up 2 pieces of thick backing (instead of wasting a headband), run the design...before your hoop, put on the masking tape-after running the design, mark your top and bottom (of the headband) on the tape while the backing with design is still in place! Then you can hoop your headbands easily. Use soft tearaway for backing or the 'wash a way' backing-not cut away.

[Donna B]

Thank you. I was planning to use tape to mark the hoops. I really like the idea of using the 2 pieces of backing, etc. and will definitely go with that. I am using a soft tearaway backing and solvy on the top. I just finished doing 24 matching fleece scarves and need to do the headbands to finish the order. This is for a group that is marching in the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade.

By the way, I was in Portsmouth, NH for a wedding in August and just loved the whole area. We are planning a vacation out that way for next summer.