The phenomenal popularity of machine embroidery has given rise to many new brands of stabilizers coming to market and the task of sorting them all out can be daunting. But there are still only a few basic types and they are all designed to support the fabric while the embroidery machine stitches the designs, helping to prevent puckering and bunching of the stitches.

Stabilizers or backings can be permanent or temporary. Excess permanent backings are removed by cutting around the design after e...
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Which stabilizers do you use and when?

Cut-away:
I've used the same product for many years. I have tried different ones, but keep coming back to the same thing. I use the stabilizer from OESD.

Sheer:
A newer product. I am beginning to use this most of the time now. I've also used this product on the industrial side for a good number of years. It works well with light weight and knits. I always hoop it and use two layers, placed with gains running in perpendicular directions. Sometimes I'll use ...
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From improved appliqué to the creation of entirely new fabrics and embellishments, there's hardly a decorative sewing process that hasn't benefited from the explosion of new stabilizers recently ignited by the popularity of machine embroidery. Designed to support, or even replace, fabric under the stress of dense and multi-directional machine stitching, stabilizers can be applied in many ways, but are usually used in conjunction with an embroidery hoop to hold fabric as flat and inflexibly a...
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