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Since the embroidery industry boom in the 1990’s competition for embroiderers to buy supplies has been fierce. Embroidery companies from basement single head embroidery machine shops to the thousand head embroidery manufacturing facility, have fundamental requirements to assemble a quality embroidered design or monogram. One of the worst mistakes an embroiderer can make is using poorly manufactured or improperly matched stabilizer.

Stabilizing is the foundation for good embroidery. Lay a proper foundation! (Fred Lebow)

Simply described, properly manufactured embroidery stabilizer starts as a large vat of binding chemical. This binder is homogeneously mixed with the tiny fibers you can see frayed on the edges of the backing you currently use. After the mixing process the liquid stabilizer is poured out in enormous sheets and dried. These sheets are gathered into giant parent rolls. For this specific manufacturing process there are only 3 reputable embroidery stabilizers in the world. If the backing you embroider with has a consistent, uniform appearance when drawn tight facing a light source, you most likely have a Hollingsworth & Voss backing, Wellington non-woven stabilizer or an Alstrom wet laid non-woven product. These companies produce huge parent rolls and then ship to cutting facilities that either resell the embroidery stabilizer to you or resell to a distribution center that offers a variety of products for embroiderers such as Madeira or BuyEmbroiderySupplies.com.

Textiles with embroidered designs or monogramming typically need a reinforcing material to work as a dense foundation. This “backing” material is considered necessary for proper embroidery design and monogram registration. These non-woven materials are taken for granted by laymen to the embroidery industry however the true professional embroiderer should be nearly an expert on the density of the embroidered fabric versus the termed weight or density of the backing material.

The essential characteristic that must be considered for matching stabilizer with fabric to produce high quality embroidery is:

• Does the fabric being embroidered come in direct contact with skin?

ü  Embroidery contacting skin (shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, shorts)= Cut away embroidery stabilizer

ü  Embroidery not contacting skin (coats, jackets, hats) = Tear away embroidery stabilizer

Cut-away embroidery stabilizer and tear-away embroidery stabilizer have drastically different aesthetic values.

Cut-away embroidery stabilizer characteristics

• Softer to the touch in all weights and densities
• After washing Cut away embroidery stabilizer has a material feel to it
• Cut-away backing has to be cut from embroidered fabric  which doesn’t have a precision look to the stabilizer removal process
• More time spent per garment to have a completely finished product

Tear-away embroidery stabilizer characteristics

• Stiff paper-like feel in all weights and densities
• After washing Tear-away embroidery stabilizer will be stiff under the bottom stitch but the majority of backing is knocked loose
• Tear-away backing can be torn where the needle has punched through the backing
• Typically the tear-away backing removal is much less time intensive due to the ease of removal

There are as many weights and styles for both cut-away and tear away embroidery stabilizer as there are varieties of material to embroider. To illustrate my point take a look at the list of items Hollingsworth & Voss has compiled to matchup with their numerous non-woven embroidery stabilizers.

Textile                                                 Backing     (H&V embroidery stabilizer style number)