Ok I have came to the conclustion that my needle breaks have a large part to do with to much play in the hat. I feel like some hats that I hoop are not close enough to the metal plate and are bouncing up and down. Please let me know if you know any good sites I can visit that show the proper way to hoop.
Perfect timing for this question! I have some questions myself. I have the Tajima 270 frames as well as hooptech semiwide frames. With the 270s, are the teeth of the band supposed to fit into/along the seam between the bill and the front of the cap? If so, any tips on making that happen? Mine never want to stay put there, and I end up with the teeth 1/8" or so away from the seam. (Most of my stock are unstructured 6 panel caps.) My question for the semiwides is actually about the gauge--what is the proper way to use it? It has a hinged hanging-down thingie whose purpose I can't quite figure out...presumably to stretch the cap onto the frame (?) but how is it to be used? I suspect many of my issues with caps are due to poor hooping technique.
I have a Barudan with a 270 cap frame. The teeth fit right along the seam where the front of the hat meets the brim. With some caps I have to use my body and lean onto the cap to kind of hold it in place while using one hand to pull the back taut and the other hand to line the teeth up. On 6-panel unstructured caps (these were the hardest for me to learn), I make sure to use hat backing. I attended a seminar in which the instructor advised using a single sheet of regular copy paper folded into thirds (like a business letter) in place of hat backing. Seems like a good idea, a great way to recycle paper, and it fits nicely into a cap - but my machine doesn't do well using this method. I use a fairly stiff tear-away (though not nearly as thick as 3 layers of paper) made to fit well into a cap.
Once the 270 is straight across the front seam and down the sides and clamped closed - my frame is made such that I can pull it taut in the back and secure the back with a second clamp. While I do not use this second / back clamp with all styles, I find it necessary to prevent unnecessary flagging with 6-panel unstructured caps. When I'm finished the front teeth are lined up, the side teeth are lined up, and the back clamp is secure - all while the tear-away is giving me a golf-style-like surface to embroider on. Very little flagging going on with this set up! Once I'm finished with the embroidery, and the backing is ripped out, the floppy little hat is back to "normal".
Okay, I would love to hear more people thoughts On this...
On unconstructed hats I have started using one sheet of heavy tear away backing and using the cardboard that comes in the hat for backing!!!..I was a little concerned that this was weird or bad but it is working Really GOOD, i USE THE CARDBOARD LIKE TEAR AWAY! and I use the cardboard as a template to shape the Backing but I do find it important to make sure the backing gets hooped on both ends and I also have to use double sided tape to make the backing stays in place while I hoop....am I okay or do I have a recipe form disaster?
I have a Barudan with a 270 cap frame. The teeth fit right along the seam where the front of the hat meets the brim. With some caps I have to use my body and lean onto the cap to kind of hold it in place while using one hand to pull the back taut and the other hand to line the teeth up. On 6-panel unstructured caps (these were the hardest for me to learn), I make sure to use hat backing. I attended a seminar in which the instructor advised using a single sheet of regular copy paper folded into thirds (like a business letter) in place of hat backing. Seems like a good idea, a great way to recycle paper, and it fits nicely into a cap - but my machine doesn't do well using this method. I use a fairly stiff tear-away (though not nearly as thick as 3 layers of paper) made to fit well into a cap.
Once the 270 is straight across the front seam and down the sides and clamped closed - my frame is made such that I can pull it taut in the back and secure the back with a second clamp. While I do not use this second / back clamp with all styles, I find it necessary to prevent unnecessary flagging with 6-panel unstructured caps. When I'm finished the front teeth are lined up, the side teeth are lined up, and the back clamp is secure - all while the tear-away is giving me a golf-style-like surface to embroider on. Very little flagging going on with this set up! Once I'm finished with the embroidery, and the backing is ripped out, the floppy little hat is back to "normal".
I also have a Barudan and this is how I hoop my caps. Works like a charm for me.
I have found (1) that there are certain brands of caps that hoop and stitch better than others, (2) that there are certain brands of caps my machine loves and other brands it hates, (3) that it takes a lot of practice to get the comfortable with hooping caps.
This time next year you'll be wondering why you even posted about having trouble hooping caps.
This time next year you'll be wondering why you even posted about having trouble hooping caps.
Thanks for these words--they changed my attitude from looking at caps as a dreaded headache to looking at them as a challenge. My hooping went better today thanks to the technique given above and my change in perspective!
Proper hat hooping technique? 
