Digitizing and Embroidering a Logo

As I mentioned in my Intro to Embroidery post I just started digitizing my own designs for embroidering.  I was learning a lot from Digitizing Embroidery Design Craftsy class but wanted to try doing my own project.  My main push of signing up for this class was for a gift I wanted to give to my dad for Father's Day.  My dad runs a pole vaulting club called G Force Pole Vaulting.  He is one of a few coaches and I thought it was a perfect project to try and digitize the logo.  I thought I could put the logo on one of the C9 Men's Golf Polos.  These shirts are super comfortable and breathable and would be a great coach shirt.

Getting Better Embroidery Placement

I would still consider myself to be a novice embroiderer and once of the things I would love to improve on is getting the placement of my embroidery better.  The first couple of things I have embroidered have turned out pretty well but wasn't exactly where I wanted the embroidery to be or it wasn't quite straight on what I was placing it on.

After searching for tutorials and techniques to make this better I kept seeing embroidery hoops that came with plastic grids.  I thought that would be my answer.  If I had a grid for the hoop I would have better lines to use for placement and getting my designs straight.  Because I bought my machine used I just assumed that the person I bought my machine from had lost the hoop grids.  After extensive research I came to find that my hoops didn't come with grids.  I was bummed.  There had to be a way to get something like this that would fit my hoops.

After some brainstorming and lots of YouTube videos I figured it wouldn't be that difficult to make one.  I could use my Silhouette Cameo to create the grid and then cut out the template.  Should be easy right?  Not so much.