Originally Posted by happy sewer
My question. Can you do embroidery on the 8500 without hooping? what if you want to do the same design on a long strip of fabric without hooping? Thanks.
You can't do any machine embroidery without hooping. It keeps the fabric taut, and the hoop mechanism moves and guides the fabric for the machine design to stitch the embroidery. You can do a long strip of fabric by stitching out the design, then taking the fabric out of the hoop, moving it to center the design again, and stitch the new part. It makes it easier if your design is broken into parts that don't all connect. That way, if your placement isn't spot on, it's not as noticeable.