Impressions - March 2014 - 64

Embroidery Production

Stock These

Stabilizers
There are many specialty stabilizers
and toppings that serve a purpose for
embroiderers, and I keep several on
hand. As a basic selection, I recommend that every embroidery shop or
studio keep the following stabilizers
in their staple collections to cover a
wide range of fabrics and design types.
Specialty and colored stabilizers may
be added as needed.
Medium-Weight Cutaway (traditional
nonwoven): They are stable and reliable, even in large hoop sizes.
Woven Cutaway: These are stable and
reliable for lightweight, stretchy technical knits, such as moisture-wicking
fabrics.
No-Show Polymesh: This stabilizer
type is sheer, soft and stable in small
hoop sizes.
Lightweight Crisp Tearaway: Use with
light-stitch-count designs on lightweight fabrics.
Medium-Weight Crisp Tearaway: Ideal
for medium- to heavy-stitch-count
designs on stable woven fabrics.
Medium-Weight Soft Tearaway: This is
ideal for light-to-medium-stitch-count
designs on unstable fabrics and heavy
stitch count or detailed designs on
stable materials.

Impressions | March 2014

Figure 4

ﬁbers, making it difﬁcult to tear. It has
more stability and typically is used for
high-stitch-count designs, detailed designs and embroidery on unstable fabrics,
such as knits. It must be removed by cutting it away from the edges of embroidery. I recommend leaving about ¼-inch
margin outside the embroidery edge and
using straight short-blade scissors, from
4-6 inches in overall length (see Figure 2).
Soft tearaway stabilizer is an interesting hybrid, made of both short and long ﬁbers (see Figure 3). It's designed to provide
more support because it tears away, just
not as easily. The liquid slurry also contains ingredients to give it a softer hand.
In Figure 4, I did a sewout of a ﬁll-stitched
circle with a regular crisp tearaway stabilizer.
As you can see, the standard tearaway has
already punched out and become detached
from the embroidery and fabric. Imagine
stitching an outline on this circle with no
remaining support from the stabilizer.
Chances are good that the outline wouldn't
match up with the ﬁll-stitched circle.
Now, check out Figure 5, where I
used a soft tearaway on the same design.
The stabilizer remains intact following
the stitching of the circle, thanks to the

longer ﬁbers mixed with the short ones.
You can see the completed embroidery
with the outline, which was well supported. The stabilizer tears away thanks
to the needle's perforations.
So, how should you choose between
the crisp and soft tearaway varieties? I
use crisp tearaway with light-stitch-count
and lightly detailed designs on woven or
other stable fabrics. I also use it on ﬁnished
caps. It creates the cleanest edges on satinstitched lines and lettering. I also use it on
unstable fabrics for light-stitch-count and
lightly detailed designs.

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
In the past few years, knits have become more lightweight and stretchy. Some
of these fabrics have moisture-wicking
properties and other technical features.
Manufacturers of high-end apparel were
thrilled with the response of consumers
to the new fabrications, but confounded by decorators' efforts to successfully
embroider them. When presented with
this challenge, Gunold USA went old
school to provide a solution to one manufacturer that asked for their help.
The embroidery products supplier
impressionsmag.com

http://www.impressionsmag.com

Impressions - March 2014

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