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