Hoop Sizes

The first home embroidery machines all came with a 4-inch hoop. Most could only embroider a 100mm design, which is about 3.85". The Pfaff 7570 has an embroidery field of 120mm x 115mm. The early New Home had a 4-inch hoop that was actually 120mm x 89mm. Confused? So were embroidery designers. Then along came new machines with the 5" x 7" hoops, which embroider designs up to 130mm x 180mm. Add to that the larger hoops, sliding hoops, hoops that turn around to attach on both sides... Yikes! How can you possibly keep track?

When buying a machine, ask the dealer the size of the embroidery field in both inches and millimeters for each hoop. Make a note of those dimensions inside the cover of the owners manual for easy reference. You can also visit Skeldale House to see a hoop size chart.

When buying designs, remember that any design for a "4-inch hoop" is really smaller than four inches. Most are 98mm or smaller (the 100mm designs seemed to cause problems at the edges of the hoop). When in doubt, ask the designer for the exact dimensions in your format, and specify if you want inches or millimeters. Please don't just tell her what model machine you have, as she probably is familiar with only a few machines. Ask if the design comes as a split design or as a single design.

If a design is only a few millimeters too large for your hoop, you can probably successfully re-size it to fit. Larger designs will need to be split. Some designs are offered as split designs for multi-hooping. To split the design yourself, you will need software designed for this purpose.

I cannot offer any advice about design splitting. I have never split a finished design, have no knowledge of the various programs that will split embroidery files, and cannot make recommendations. The few designs I offer as split designs were created in parts, not split after the fact.

Next issue: looking for a design

from Mary Jane Allen of Perfect Little Stitches

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Crazy Heart
Patchwork Quilt
Made "in the hoop" for 5x7 hoops

This patchwork quilt is made
of nine blocks embroidered
in the hoop, stitched together
and then quilted in the hoop.
Set includes 5 quilting motifs
specifically designed to fit
the borders. The quilt is a
combination of patchwork,
appliqué and embroidery.

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