[HNW] Re: Embroidering garments

[Catherine Kinsey]

I still use a hoop and while I tended to stretch the fabric tightly when
I first started to embroidery, now it is mostly just to help control the
fabric.  I, too, had a disaster when one of my first projects using a
wool thread met the washing machine :).  I find when doing modern
crossstitch on those lovely evenweave linens I do not use a hoop.  

I have been using a hoop on a current kingdom project, new coronation
copes.  This webpage is very out-of-date but here are some of the first
devices that were finished:
http://calontir.sca.org/artsci/copes/copespicarms.html
These are all using hand-dyed silk on a very fine linen.  It was so
fine we ended up needing to back it with another piece :).  The silk was
a little thicker than I would have liked to work with on this scale of
design but we have had some very creative stitchers working on these.  I
do tend to take my pieces out of the hoop once I'm finished and evening
out the edges with the fabric in hand.

Catherine