Water soluble stabilizer is also essential for most free standing lace projects. This is because you need a foundation on which to stitch out the free standing lace. After you finish and rinse project, the stabilizer will disappear and you are left with lace.
Water soluble stabilizer is also used frequently for in-the hoop projects. For example, if the project has a finished satin stitch edge, you would want to use a water soluble stabilizer so that no stabilizer shows are around the outside edge. Mesh water soluble stabilizer is different from water soluble topper. The stabilizer is more of a fibrous material and the topper is a clear film. It makes a huge difference when you are embroidering on terry cloth towels.
You simply lay a piece of the water soluble topper over the area on which you are embroidering. Then you start stitching. The water soluble topper keeps the towel fibers from popping through your stitches and you get a nice, finished look. It keeps harsh surfaces of the embroidered area on wearables from rubbing against the skin. Not convinced you need machine embroidery stabilizer? If this is the case, you may be wondering if there are any machine embroidery stabilizer alternatives.
The answer is yes. If you are in a bind, it may be worth a try, but I prefer to keep all my standard stabilizers on hand. Subscribe to the Machine Embroidery Geek newsletter for access to this vault full of goodies! Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
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More Recommended Products. How to embroider on a onesie. How to center machine embroidery designs on a t-shirt or sweatshirt. Machine embroidery on foam. Best sewing chairs: great options for sewing and embroidery. Hoop burn: how to remove it and avoid it. They can be used with most fabrics but are unsuitable for stretchy and sheer fabrics. They also come in different weight categories. These categories are heavy weight, lightweight, and medium weight.
All these weight categories of tear-away stabilizers are soft and pliable. The fusible form is attached to the fabric by ironing it at low temperatures. These iron-on stabilizers should not be used when dealing with a tightly packed row of stitches.
In this case, they will be difficult to remove. There also exist tear-away stabilizers that disintegrate in water , therefore simplifying the separation process. On the other hand, there are water activated ones that stick to the fabric upon wetting.
There are also flame-retardant tear-away stabilizers. Additionally, colored vinyl tear-away stabilizer is a unique type of tear-away stabilizer that prevents the color of the base fabric from being seen through the embroidery. This type of embroidery is in the form of a plastic-like film and is permanent. Needless to say, there are many options when it comes to tear-away stabilizers. For those who have never used a tear-away stabilizer, this video tutorial below can help you out.
These temporary stabilizers are water soluble and are therefore removed from fabrics by dissolving them in water. They are used in the instances where you will need to remove all traces of stabilizer from the fabric. They are mainly used for specialty fabrics, unique embroidery designs, and delicate mesh-like fabrics.
These stabilizers do not allow for designs with a lot of stitches. They come in different forms such as soluble paper sheets, brush-on, and sprayable liquid. The brush-on and spray-on stabilizers are applied on top of the fabric to form a translucent film.
These wash-away stabilizers get dry and brittle when exposed to air and begin to dissolve when exposed to humid conditions. To remove these stabilizers from your fabric, you can either soak the fabric in water, use a spray bottle to mist the stabilizer or wash the fabric under warm running water.
If some stabilizer is left in the fabric, it will become stiff. This is easy to notice especially when dealing with lace. The more you rinse the fabric, the softer it becomes. This stiffness associated with wash-away stabilizers is the main reason you should not apply a lot of it on the fabric you are embroidering.
These are stabilizers that are removed from a fabric by use of heat. On materials that have trouble moving, paper is used as a convenient backing that helps the fabric to move smoothly. This stabilizer has a paper cover on its adhesive side. This stabilizer could be cut away, tear away or wash away. This is primarily used when you cannot hoop the fabric — it could be a small one or just cannot be hooped like a shirt collar or will leave marks if hooped like.
The stabilizer is hooped and then the paper backing is removed and then the fabric is kept on it, for embroidery. This kind of stabilizer is kept on top of the fabric with texture. It is used when working with special fabrics like ones with nap, piled fabric, fabric with uneven weave, which will take in stitches and make them look unattractive. The fabrics they are used on are fake fur, terry cloth, velvet, corduroy and fleece.
Some type of toppings dissolve in water and can easily be removed once the work is finished. Water soluble topping dissolve away giving a clean appearance to your work. They can be used to make lace. Some others dissolve with heat — best used with un-washable material. Some use Tulle Fabric as a topping.
Solvy is a very popularly used brand water-soluble plastic film used as a topping stabilizer. It is used for embroidering on knitwear and terrycloth. Later after the work is done a light misting of warm water will dissolve SOLVY leaving the work neat and clean and not sunk in.
Using the stabilizers. The 3 main considerations in choosing stabilizers are — the kind of fabric you are using its structure and stability , the effect you want and the stitch density. Other factors like color, stitch length, stitch speed, size of the embroidery and stability of the design are all important.
Buy the appropriate non-shrinkable non stretchable stabilizer. Get dense stabilizer for dense fabrics Thickness is not the same as denseness in these materials. For thin fabrics a lightweight stabilizer is used. If the stitch density is more stitches in the design , a thicker denser stabilizer is used as backing.
Another main consideration is how it will feel against the skin. For kids clothing a soft non irritating flame retardant one is preferred. Please test the stabilizer on your fabric and the type of stitching with your sewing machine first before you use it on your real work. The more stitches used, a heavier stabilizer will help keep the fabric intact. The larger a design, especially with complex digitized designs, a stabilizer will give more stability to the fabric and support to the embroidered design.
A solid stitch-filled design will benefit most from a medium weight cutaway. A light running stitch design may get the best results with a sheer mesh cutaway stabilizer or in some cases a tear-away. The selection of the best stabilizer for your project also depends on the final look you require. If you want a completely clean finish with no remnants of the stabilizer showing you will need a water or heat soluble stabilizer. With other stabilizers, like cut-aways, some stabilizer material remains with only the excess side pieces removed.
The remaining backing can provide extra support for the stitching but most people find it unsightly on the final garment.
Tear-away backings are a good compromise with most of the stabilizer removed after the embroidery but in more complex parts some support remaining. Before we move on to the different types of stabilizers, a quick note.
Although all the rules we have discussed can help you to choose the correct stabilizer, opinions vary greatly on when you should use different stabilizers. The type of machine, needles, threads and hoops will all play a part in the success of your embroidery results. Use the guidelines in this article as a starting point and experiment.
And then experiment more! The guidelines in this article will help you to make better choices between designs, fabrics and which stabilizer to use. Each type of stabilizer is available in different weights and you can also choose whether its is sticky, fusible or non-adhesive.
By far the most common embroidery machine stabilizer is cut-away which can be used with any fabric which has some stretch in it. Knitted fabrics like those used in t-shirts, polo shirts or golf shirts need the support of cut-away stabilizer. Other garments include swimwear, fleeces or sweatshirts and anything where there is a dense embroidered design.
Cut-away stabilizers are permanent, stretch resistant and remain on the fabric for the life of the design. They are the most stable type of backing with the stronger support preventing stitches from hugging together or the fabric bunching up. As the name suggests, any excess stabilizer is cut away at the sides and the remaining backing offers support to the garment when laundered or being worn.
You can get cut-aways in a range of weights from a heavyweight for dense embroidery designs to a lightweight mesh style for a lighter stitch density.
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