How to Use Tear Away Embroidery Stabilizer
Stabilizers play a crucial role in embroidery, and you can also refer to them as backing. When embroidering a fabric, they will provide support to it. Usually, you need to hold the stabilizer along with the material at its edges.
Different stabilizers play a different role, but even so, the quality of each matter. You require a stabilizer that will keep your fabric secure when embroidering. A wrong stabilizer will cost you bits since you may end up with a crooked garment.
One great stabilizer you should consider is the tear-away stabilizer. In this article, you will learn what a tear-away embroidery stabilizer is and how to use it. Read on!
How to Use Tear Away Embroidery Stabilizer?
Contents
- How to Use Tear Away Embroidery Stabilizer?
- When to Use a Tear-Away Stabilizer?
- What Are the Types of Tear-Away Stabilizers?
- Steps to Use the Sticky Tear Away Stabilizer
- How Do You Remove Tear-Away Stabilizers?
- What Should You Look Before Settling on the Tear-Away Stabilizer?
- How Will You Know That the Stabilizer Is Tear-Away?
First, this stabilizer works well for embroidery that requires stability or those that don’t stretch as much. It resembles lightweight paper and comes in different weights, colors, and softness to suit different fabrics.
To use the tear-away stabilizer, cut it away from the back of your embroidery. Please do this by carefully pulling it so that you don’t stretch the fabric.
On one side of the stabilizer, spray a temporary adhesive spray. This way, it secures the fabric in place for embroidery.
When to Use a Tear-Away Stabilizer?
A stabilizer is an essential tool for embroiderers. The kind of stabilizer you use depends on the fabric you use. In this case, the tear-away stabilizer works well for most materials apart from the stretchy ones.
It would help if you used tear-away embroidery stabilizers when you want to remove the excess stabilizer at the end of your project. They are usually temporary stabilizers that you can remove after finishing embroidering.
Some garments that require embroidering and those that will go well with the tear-away stabilizer include towels and scarves.
The tear-away stabilizer helps prevent puckering of the fabric that you are applying the embroidery design to. As such, it will be offering support to the towel or any other woven fabric, after which you tear the fabric.
Unlike the cut-away stabilizer, tear-away stabilizers will not be offering any more support once embroidering is over.
You can use more than one tear-away stabilizer on some fabrics, while on others, you need one later at most. Once you finish the embroidering process, you can now tear them away.
For best results, do this one at a time. As such, your design will come out need with no folds or wrinkles.
What Are the Types of Tear-Away Stabilizers?
The design of the tear-away stabilizer can fit most embroidery fabric. It is pretty straightforward to employ this kind of stabilizer in your sewing project. You can get it in different weights and sizes to suit other materials.
Also, you have the option of employing one or more tear-away, depending on the fabric. Some of the tear-away stabilizers one can use include.
1. Iron Tear-Away Stabilizer
This stabilizer works well for heavy or medium-weight fabrics. Typically, when using it, you place the stabilizer under your garment and iron it on.
Ensure that as you iron, you are not stretching the fabric. Such a stabilizer ensures that the garment you are about to embroider is stable and will not stretch as you do the embroidering.
When you iron the iron-on tear-away stabilizer on the fabric, it becomes fusible. It can work well for a stretchy fabric by first ironing the tear away.
Also, always ensure that the stabilizer size is larger than the hoop to prevent the material from stretching. This stabilizer helps to keep the fabric intact without pulling it. Also, it secures the fabric in place during sewing.
2. Sticky Tear-Away Stabilizer
Is the project you are working on hard to hoop? Or is it a stretchy fabric that won’t stay in place when sewing? Stick away stabilizer will help you secure it in place, and you will have a smooth time embroidering.
It is also known as an adhesive stick and peel tear-away stabilizer. It comes as stuck paper with the sticky side covered. You need to peel the paper so that you can apply the adhesive side on the fabric.
Steps to Use the Sticky Tear Away Stabilizer
Step 1: Hoop the Stabilizer on the Garment
The size of the fabric you are embroidering should guide you in determining the stick tear-away stabilizer scope to use. Once you have the size in hand, you need to place it below the sewing garment. You can now move to the next step.
Step 2: Remove the Paper Protecting the Sticky Side
Remember, you aim to make the fabric you are about to embroider stable. And since you are working with the adhesive tear-away stabilizer, the sticky part should hold the material in place. Remove the adhesive side and stick it to the fabric. Do this from the inside of the hoop.
Step 3: Start Embroidering
You can now start embroidering your fabric since you have the support from the tear-away stabilizer. It will ensure that the material does not move away; hence you get a smooth time sewing pattern on your garment.
Tear-Away Stabilizer for Toppings
For this tear-away stabilizer, you place it on top of the fabric rather than beneath it. It comes in handy when you are looking at preventing the stitches from moving to the nap. It can work well when embroidering things such as towels or velvets.
There are two types of this tear-away stabilizer, the dry cover-up and the melt-away. Dry cover-up comes in many different colors and is usually in the form of plastic. Also, it has a permanent effect. For the melt-away, it is non-permanent. And as the name suggests, it will melt away when ironed-on.
How Do You Remove Tear-Away Stabilizers?
When embroidering some fabrics, you can opt to use two tear-away stabilizers. As such, your material gets the best support, and you end up with a clean, neat pattern.
It does not imply that with one tear away, you get wrinkled out embroidery. You can consistently achieve a good design, even with one.
After you finish creating the pattern, now it’s time to do away with the stabilizers. Here is how you do it:
Step 1: Turn the Part With the Stabilizer to the Top
If you are using two stabilizers, you should remove one at a time. So, turn the first side up. Ensure that the surface you are dealing with is smooth—this way, you will avoid messing up with the pattern you have already created.
Step 2: Support the Stitches With Your Hand
For careful removal, you need to place your hands on the stitches. Removing the stabilizer will be much more comfortable, and you will not tamper with the stitches.
Step 3: Tear the Stabilizer
Start by tearing it in one direction, still ensuring that your hand supports the stitches. Then pull it In the opposite direction. Repeat the same process if you had a second layer.
When tearing, ensure you are gentle so that you don’t pull the fabric.
What Should You Look Before Settling on the Tear-Away Stabilizer?
Specific stabilizers will work well for particular projects. Before settling on a tear-away stabilizer, you need to consider the type of fabric you are dealing with at the moment.
Even though most materials perform well with the tear-away stabilizer, the non-stretch fabric is best used. It will be best if you also look at the weight of the fabric. Ensure that the stabilizer weight is compatible with that of the material.
How Will You Know That the Stabilizer Is Tear-Away?
One way to know that the stabilizer you are using is tearing away is the ease of removal. Tear-away stabilizers are easy to remove and may either be multi-directional or bi-directional. Before buying, hold up the stabilizer where there is light.
Moreover, confirm if the fibers are running in all directions or only one. Tear the stabilizer to see if it is tearable. If yes, then it is a tear-away stabilizer.
Crafting has always been a deep-seated passion of mine, one that has flourished and evolved over the years.
I've dedicated considerable time to both studying and practicing in the realm of fashion and sewing, amassing a wealth of experience and skills.
It brings me great joy to share these insights and experiences with you all, hoping to inspire and foster a similar passion for the art of sewing.
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