All machine embroidery requires a stabilizer applied to the back of
the fabric to prevent stretching, waving, pulling and skewing the
design, but hooping fabric can be a frustrating challenge. And once the
fabric is hooped correctly you often end up with dreaded hoop marks.
The answer? Don't hoop the fabric use a sticky stabilizer and hoop it,
not the fabric, and eliminate frustration and hoop marks.
What is Sticky Stabilizer?
Sticky
stabilizer is a machine embroidery stabilizer that has a slightly waxy
paper coating, called the 'release side', over a self-adhesive,
non-woven sticky backing. Some brands have a grid on the release side
that comes in handy for positioning and marking.
When to Use the Sticky Technique
The
hoopless sticky technique works best on smaller, less stitch intensive
designs and on small areas such as pockets, edges, ribbons, cuffs in
other words, those areas that are difficult to hoop anyway. The
hoopless sticky/float technique is by no means for all machine
embroidery projects but it is a machine embroidery hooping option and
finding what works best for you is a matter of good ol' trial and error.
Mastering the Sticky Technique is Easy 1. Trim the sticky stabilizer to about an inch wider and longer than your hoop. 2. Hoop the sticky with the release side up. It should be secure in the hoop: Tight, flat and without puckers or bubbles. 3.
Remove the waxy paper coating from the sticky inside the hoop by first
very gently scoring it with something like an X-Acto(R) knife or thread
pick, then peeling it off. 4. Use your hoop's grid template to place
marks on the stabilizer to locate the straightline center and right and
left edges. Be sure to place your grid gently over the sticky with the
bowed side up. Otherwise the sticky will do its job and grab onto your
template. 5. Now lay out your design's placement on your fabric or
garment, again marking the straightline center and right and left
edges. Important: Place these marks on the backside of the fabric. 6.
Grasp your fabric from the backside on the marks to make a gentle fold
and, lining up the fabric marks with the marks on the sticky, carefully
lay the fabric, backside down, on the sticky. 7. Smooth out the fabric, ensuring it is flat and secure on the sticky all around. 8.
Now lock the fabric to the part of the stabilizer that is hanging over
the edge of the hoop (the part with the paper still on) just to make
sure it doesn't get caught on anything while embroidering. I often just
pin it but double stick tape works great, too. 9. Mount the hoop
onto your machine and 'float' a layer of stabilizer (tear-away,
cut-away, or whatever type is recommended for your fabric) between the
embroidery hoop and the needle plate. 10. Push the button and embroider it! 11. When your absolutely perfect design is finished, remove the hoop from your machine and remove the floated stabilizer. 12. All you have to do now is slowly peel the embroidered fabric off the sticky. Machine embroidery just doesn't get any easier or more fun than this. And no hoop burns!
Disclaimer: All information on this site is
provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice
provided to you by any health care or other professional or
organization.
