Hooping can be a mystery to a lot of “newbie” embroiderers and for some old timers who maybe don’t know some of the new techniques. It all really depends on what you are getting ready to embroider. The consensus is that hooping your product is always the best way to have a design turn out with little or no puckering. Sometimes you can’t.
Decisions are made depending on whether the product will get what they call Hoop Burn. (a ring left from the hoop crushing the nap down)
If you are going to embroider a flat or waffle kitchen towel hooping is your best bet. You can use a tearaway stabilizer with 505 spray or Floriani Perfect Stick. For a Red-work style design using Floriani Wet n Gone Tacky wash away type works nicely.
If you are going to put a design or Monogram on a nice terry or velour bath towel, then you
want to “float” the towel. That means you hoop your stabilizer only using Floriani Perfect Stick stabilizer, Floriani Wet and Stick tearaways and you lay the towel on top of the stabilizer and hoop. (if towel is big and heavy a straight pin inserted through towel and stabilizer in each corner will help to keep the towel in place) You can also use a nice medium cutaway with 505 spray. There are those who say that the cutaway stabilizer will hold up best with a lot of washing. You cut the stabilizer about 1/4 inch away from design which means you will see a little of the stabilizer on the back. This becomes a matter of taste. I’ve used both methods.
Free standing lace is beautiful and is a technique of it’s own. For this I use 2 layers of Floriani Wet n Gone wash away stabilizer or Sulky Fabri Solvy. Both look like opaque cheese cloth but will hold a design that has 30,000 stitches or more in a lace type design. You use no fabric, you stitch right on the stabilizer, then cut 1/4 inch around the finished design to get rid of excess stabilizer. Then soak the design in warm water to get rid of stabilizer in the lace. If you want it to be stiff like a bookmark or Christmas ornament you rinse it a few times until excess is gone and lay on a paper towel to dry. If you are stitching lace for clothing or something soft, then you wash it more until you get the degree of softness that suits you. Keep changing your water to get rid of stabilizer that gets in wash water.
There are more notes I can give you on hooping and we will get into that at a later time. Christmas is coming and now is the time to make those towels, ornaments, bookmarks, etc. for Christmas gifts. Bookmarks (yes there are still people who like to hold a book in their hand) and ornaments can be put in a Christmas card for a pleasant surprise when your friend across the country opens up your card.
If you have an questions, please click on the contact button and ask your question. I’ll do my best to answer it. Also, if something I’ve said in my blogs has helped you, I would love to hear that in a comment.
Until next time, have fun sewing …. !
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO SEE PAST BLOGS. THANK YOU!
Sewing Scoupe 