Choosing Stabilizers for Machine Embroidery

In this lesson, we'll learn about the purpose of stabilizers, core stabilizers to have and how to choose your stabilizers. So let's talk about the purpose of stabilizers. The purpose is to support the stitches and the fabric during the whole stitching process. And it does help when it's in the hoop with the fabric. So as the underlay sews in the design, it will attach the fabric to the stabilizer and the fabric will then take on the stabilizing qualities of the backing.

So sometimes your fabric might be really wispy and stretchy, but when you have a good stabilizer under there, it will take on those characteristics and become more stable. So let's look at a few places where the stabilizer failed. On this design, I've sewn on polar fleece, which is a very stretchy fabric. And what you'll notice is that I have some gaping here where the outline doesn't match up. Some more down here.

Here where the foot is outside the outline. More gaping here. And it has to do with the fact that the stabilizer perforated before the design completed. So let's look at the back. If I lift this up here, I have not torn this away.

This happened during the stitching process. So if your stabilizer starts falling apart before the design finishes, and you still have a running stitch outline to sew, then the outline's not going to sew where it should. The fabric will stretch, particularly on a stretchy fabric like this, and the design will fail Here we have the same fabric again, but this time I've used a cutaway. I could have chosen a different stabilizer, but if my back is not gonna show, this nice lightweight cutaway works really well. And you can see that my outlines are perfect.

If I turn this one over, you can see that it's a very soft stabilizer and it's totally intact. Now, you can use a tearaway. This is a woven. And once again, I have perfect outlines all the way around. And if I turn this one over, you can see that I have a cutaway, or tearaway, excuse me, but it's this little sturdier one.

It's a little more medium weight and it's not quite as crisp. So you want to pick a stabilizer that will support the design all the way through. Well, sometimes the backing is the only thing supporting the design. In front of me, I have a child shower organizer. And a common myth we have about embroidery is that anything that we can get in our hoop we should be able to embroider that design and have it look good.

And it should work on just about any fabric we put in there. And that's just not true. And designs don't work on every possible thing. About the closest thing we have to a universal design is applique. And here I've used appliques on this bath towel.

So the applique here over this terry keeps the terrycloth matted down. Sometimes it'll come back up through an embroidery design. This is fishnet, and it has very, very little fabric to stitch on. But here I've used a stabilizer. So what's happening here is the fishnet is actually stabilized in between two pieces of fabric the applique on top, the stabilizer behind.

And so the fishnet's just kind of going along for the ride. So you can embroider on a lot of different things, if you know how to stabilize them, how to hoop them properly and how to choose the proper designs. So let's look at toppings. Toppings can provide a more even surface on textured fabrics or spongy fabrics like this polar fleece. And they can also add a little bit more stability, particularly if you've hooped them in with your backing.

Now, one thing we think about is that backing might prevent shrinkage. It really doesn't. This is a purchased shirt, and you can see that it's pretty ripply. This shirt looked great 'till I washed it. And it wasn't the stabilizer that shrunk.

It was the shirt. So as home embroiders, we often pre-shrink our garments and pre-shrink our fabrics before we embroider on them. And we don't usually run into a lot of this. But I have been told recently that you should never use a cutaway under a woven because cutaways can shrink. I've personally not had that experience.

My experience has been more like this where the garment has actually shrunk. Now, another thing when thinking about stabilizers is that you want to pick something that won't show through. So on these, I've used a semi-permanent stabilizer, one that's in there while I sew to support the design, but goes totally away. So we'll look at those later on in this session. So what stabilizers do you need to have in your stash?

Well, it depends on the kind of embroidery you do. For example, I do all kinds of different embroidery, but I don't do any production embroidery anymore. And I make that distinction because I think of myself more as a home embroider, and I'm more willing to do weird and convoluted things to get my fabric stabilized than I would if I was thinking in a production term where I was wanting to do more efficient things. So the kind of stabilizers you're gonna need kind of depends on the type of embroider you do. If you do primarily lace, like this, then you're gonna use a different kind of stabilizer selection than you would then if your friend does sweatshirts.

So you need to think about what you use. Now, what I'm gonna share with you here is my stabilizer stash. And these are the ones that I think of as my go-to stabilizers. They're not every stabilizer in the world. They're the ones that work well for me.

So start with a little core and work your way out. You don't need every weird and exotic stabilizer there is on the planet. So when you're thinking about the stabilizer, think about what do you need to support the design. Do you need something permanent? Do you need something temporary?

For example, on this shirt, I don't have enough support. The design still looks good. I got good registration. But see how it's all puckering and sticking in? That's because back when I did this was when I was first starting an embroidery.

And what I was told was to use a iron-on-tear-away because it would keep my knit from stretching, and just hoop. And I did that and now I have puckers. And it's because that didn't really support the design and I need more support to keep it from sinking into the fabric. So on this design, which we saw earlier, this one used cutaway to support it. And I have perfect outline.

But this one used tear away. And I got that bad registration. So registration means that our outlines are all perfect. And this one is not. So think about, how's it gonna support the fabric?

Is it going to impact the feel? You also wanna think about toppings and we'll look at those. This is a terrycloth towel, and it's a low-nap one. It's really more like a velour. And I used a water soluble topping on this.

And you can see that my design still looks nice and clean. On this towel, it's a little bit deeper. And I've got a pretty thin design here. And while I did use a water soluble topping, the design kind of sinks in a little bit. And the thing about water soluble toppings is they're temporary.

They're not going to be permanent. So if I wanted something a little bit more permanent on this, I would probably use a melt away, which looks like a plastic. You might think it might ruin your iron, but it just kind of evaporates into thin air. So those are some things we need to think about. And the next thing we'll do is we'll look at different types of toppings and how they work.

So tearaways are best for wovens. And tearaways are so named because they tear. And they work best when you have satin stitches or fill stitches, because they'll perforate that stabilizer and make it easy to tear away. On these butterflies, you may be able to see that I have quite a bit of stabilizer in there. And I'm not gonna pick it out.

It's just gonna be too hard. And you don't wanna really wanna use this behind a red work style design that might show through on the front. It's not gonna be a problem on this one, but it could be on other designs. Now, on this jacket back, I've sewn this in one hooping. Now, if you have a small hoop, you can sew this in multiple hoopings.

I chose one, because I knew I could get it all in my giant hoop. I also had to use a floating technique. And the reason was these heavy seams. They're going to interfere with any hooping. To float, I wanted to make sure that I had it firmly attached to my stabilizer.

And I did use two layers of tearaway. I could have used cutaway, but there's that caution about cutaway shrinking. And I didn't want to run into that. So I used two layers of tearaway. I did use a spray.

I also basted it. And when I made my basting stitch, I actually digitized it. And I digitized it close around here. If you have digitizing software, you know, you don't have to digitize amazing, big, complicated things. Learning to do basting stitches is perfect.

So I based it and I used a double stick and embroidery tape. I used all that extra stuff so that it wouldn't fall. This is a pretty heavy jacket and I didn't want it shifting in my hoop. Once I get it in my hoop, and had it all basted, I stitched the design. And I watched it stitched.

And as I watched, I noticed that it was starting to bunch up, because denim is very densely woven. We think it's the perfect fabric for stitching on, but really it's so tightly woven that there's not a lot of room for thread. And when we think about embroidery, we talk about embroidery on things, but we really embroidered through. And every stitch that goes in and comes out, there are two pieces of thread there. And it's gonna start to push your fabric.

And that's what was happening here. I was getting these little ripples. And it wasn't because of bad design, or bad hooping or bad stabilizing. It's just one of those embroidery facts of life. So what I did was I had to release some of my basting stitches, because my fabric was starting to bunch up to the point where it was gonna sew in a pleat.

Now, let me explain this thread displacement a little bit better. And you can think of a bathtub full of water. So if you have a full bathtub and a little person gets in, you might get some overflow. But if you have a really big person get in, you're gonna have a lot of overflow. And a denim jacket is like a full bathtub.

It's already pretty tightly woven, so it can't absorb a lot of thread. And that's just the way it works. So would I've gotten better result with cutaway? I don't think so. With the denim jacket, because it had all those in and out places, I was able to tear all of that stabilizer away.

And so I didn't have anything that was holding into place. So it released those bubbles. So when you're thinking about cutaways versus tearaways, you have to think about different ways that things can happen. So cutaways are permanent backing and they're recommended for knits and stretchy fabrics. The two that I use most are this medium weight regular cutaway and a no-show mesh.

You'll find these under names like, No Show Mesh from Floriani, Soft and Sheer from Sulky and various other names. They come in black, white and beige. This one also comes in black and white. And I find that these are the two that I use for just about everything. Now, the experts really can't seem to agree on this, because I've been told in different classes you should never use a cutaway behind wovens, because they can shrink.

And other people say, no, you should use them whenever a fabric stretches. So here's a red wolf stitched on denim. And I did stitch it with a cutaway. And you might notice that I have some warping going on here. And this has to do with that whole fabric displacement thing.

There's just a lot of thread going into this fabric. But overall, it's really not all that bad. And if we look at the back, you can see that I've cut it away. And this one doesn't have a lot of in and out places like my denim jacket did. So I wasn't worried about that.

This one hasn't been washed, this was a test sew for another jacket. And that jacket has been washed and it still looks just as good as when I first embroidered it. So in this case, it didn't shrink. My experience has been that it doesn't, but you never know. Now, when would you use light over heavy?

Well, I do like the heavy one, or the medium weight, rather, under regular knits and sweatshirts. I also use it under t-shirts and golf shirts when they're kind of darker or heavier. And I'll show you when I use the lighter one. This little baby onesie has the no-show in it. And you can see when I put my hand in there, that you can kind of see maybe an outline if I pick my finger up.

There's where I've cut it away, but it doesn't show through. If we look at the inside, can see where I've cut it. And it doesn't show through on the front very much. This one, on the other hand, get my hand in there. You can definitely see a white shadow around that.

And if you were to sew this on a golf shirt or a white t-shirt, if you're very tan, it's really gonna be prominent. So that's the one you'd want to use. Definitely use the lightweight one. Now, sometimes I will combine the lightweight one with a tearaway so that I have a little bit more body in my shirt. Now, another case I've used it, these two sweaters.

And these two sweaters are a very similar weight, but on this vest, I have a simpler design, and I've used the no-show mesh. I've used black. I've also used black bobbin thread. You really can't see the bobbin thread too much. This other sweater has a much bigger design on it and I didn't want it to end up looking like that Sheltie dog on the other shirt.

So I used the medium weight cutaway. As you can see, I just used regular white bobbin thread. Now, another thing I could have used on this is organza. And the nice thing about organza is it comes in a lot of different colors. Organza is very thin.

Here, I've sewn some flowers with just two pieces of cutaway, or two pieces of organza. And you can use it as a cutaway. So if I wanted to match the inside of that sweater, I could have maybe used a organza. I have used organza on the inside of this sweater. I happen to be out of my no-show mesh.

You can't really see it because it's black on black. But let's say this was purple. And it happened to be this shade of purple. If I'd opened up that sweater, it wouldn't have been as visible as a white or black stabilizer. So consider these other options for stabilizing, particularly on a jacket or a sweater that opens in the front and you might be able to see it.

So one of my favorite backings is wash-away. And it looks pretty insubstantial, but it's a nice woven fabric and it washes completely away. And I like to use two layers of it with lace. I think it supports better. And once you wash it out, you'll have a completely free standing piece of lace.

Another place I used it, was on this collar. And I have these two little butterflies and I've done a hoopless technique here. And I hooped one layer of the wash-away, because these are pretty lightweight designs. And remember earlier I showed you how the stabilizer, the tearaway stayed behind the butterfly? By using this product, I can completely wash it out and I have no stabilizer behind there.

So if my little collars get flipped up first for some reason, I won't see a big wad of stabilizer back there. Now, here's another blouse that I've embroidered the collar on. And this time I did use tearaway. You can see it back in there. I'm not too worried about tearaway showing on this, because, well, for one it's white, it blends in with the yellow shirt, but I'm always gonna have this down.

And tearaway is less expensive than this wash-away. So sometimes you'll choose a stabilizer based on, do I want nothing to show? Do I want, does it matter that nothing shows? Or, do I wanna pick something based on cost? So one thing I want you to understand that there are a lot of guidelines for embroidery.

There are no hard and fast rules. So you're gonna be thinking about, what do I want here? What do I want there? Is it gonna support the design? Is it gonna support the fabric?

There are all these different things to think about. And if you talk to different embroiderers, you'll find that eight out of 10 will have different ways of doing things. So don't worry that you're not doing it the right way. There might not be a perfect right way. So now let's look at toppings.

My favorite one is Solvy. And that would be this lightweight film. And this is, once again, wash-away. And let me point this out. I like to keep the labels inside my roles, that way I know what stuff is.

Because sometimes you can forget and sometimes you can mix them up. Now, here I have two towels. Both of these were embroidered with Solvy. You can see that this design stands out very nicely. And it's because I have this mesh fill embroidered back here.

The mesh fill will keep the design, or keep the nap down firmly. I uses Solvy on the top to keep the nap smooth while I stitched. And then I just washed it completely out. Now, on this one, I didn't use any mesh background and you can see that it kind of sinks in. So one thing you need to think about is that this Solvy topping is temporary.

Yes, it mats down the nap while we're embroidering, but it's not permanent. It's going to wash away. So if I wanted something more permanent, I might use a film topping that melts. So this is a film. It would not have given me any benefit here, because these are already pretty skinny and it's not going to keep it from encroaching on the edges.

When you're working with a film, though, a Melt Away film, you need to consider your fabric. This is a fleece. It can melt with high temperatures. So it might melt the fabric before it totally melts this away. Now this does kind of evaporate into thin air.

If you have problems getting into tiny areas, you can just use a little heat iron like this to get into little crevices. And it works really, really well. So we've talked about my favorite backings and toppings. Let's talk about a few more things that I like to use. One is a spray.

And I do use sprays from time to time. I try to avoid them whenever possible, because a lot of times I'll use the double stick embroidery tape, because that way I'm not sewing through the adhesive. Adhesives can build up in your machine. You want to spray them lightly and spray them away from your machine. Also, I missed the stabilizer and not the fabric.

I have had older cans spurt. And happened one time and on a white batiste and it left yellow, permanent marks, which I was not happy about. Two more things that I use for stabilizing are heavy starch. I love heavy starch. It does take a little bit more work to starch the fabric and get it nice and stiff.

And it takes time to rinse it out. But it gives a nice firm fabric so that you don't have to use as much stabilizer. Other products, like backings, to stabilize your fabric. So some people like Mary Ellen's Best Press but I find that the heavy starch works better for me. So try them out and see which ones you like best.

There are lots of ways to stabilize your fabrics. And I hope you've seen that I've chosen different ways based on the design, the fabric and what I want it to look like when it's done.