After you have the template positioned where you'd like it to be, mark the horizontal and vertical points on each side of the design. Also, mark the design's center point.

You can mark placement with masking tape and a pen, or an air-erase marker.

Use a ruler to line up the two horizontal points, and draw a line straight through the center point.  Repeat this for the vertical points.

These marks will be used to line up the sweatshirt in the hoop, and also to make sure the design begins in the right spot.
 

Attach the hoop to the machine, and roll the excess sweatshirt up and out of the way. You can use chip clips or hair clips to keep the excess shirt material free and clear of the hoop.

Load the design into the machine, and move the hoop so that the needle is right over that marked center point.

Embroider the design. Because we're using cutaway stabilizer, all of the stitches are going to line up perfectly. And because the fabric is hooped with the stabilizer, there will be no puckering, no design sections misaligned -- picture-perfect results.

After the design has finished embroidering, trim the stabilizer from the backside of the shirt.

And there you have it! A cozy, cuddly sweatshirt to keep you warm -- and fashionable! -- throughout the autumn and the winter.

Some embroiderers hoop the stabilizer only, and place the sweatshirt on top of the stabilizer. But we've found that there's a significant difference in quality when this method is used. We embroidered the same design on another sweatshirt, but this time we hooped sticky stabilizer only, and laid the sweatshirt on top.

Take a a look at the results when the fabric isn't hooped with the stabilizer: