The Top 10 Tips for Perfect Machine Embroidery

This list is vital to a beginner, but is always a good reminder for an experienced embroiderer.

1. Keep your machine well-maintained.

This first tip may seem obvious, but it is so easy to forget. It is amazing how quickly time flies, and it is easy to put off having our machine serviced and cleaning it thoroughly on a regular basis. Taking good care of our machines can make a dramatic difference in how well they work for us.

The most important maintenance procedure happens at every thread change. Each time you un-thread the machine, snip the thread by the spool and pull it out from the needle end, pulling the thread through the tension discs. Frequently pulling your thread backwards toward the spool can result in costly repairs.

Have your machine serviced at least once a year by a qualified technician. In between, oil your machine only if your machine requires it. Most of our sewing machines today do not require extra oil, so be sure you know what your machine needs.

Clean it well after every project, and sometimes during a project. If your machine is not sewing well, and you cannot figure out why not, clean it well. It is amazing how often that will improve stitch quality.

Use good quality thread and needles, appropriate for the specific machine.

Understand your machine's limitations. It is okay to stretch the boundaries a little, but it is possible to damage a machine by using it incorrectly.

2. Choose appropriate stabilizer.

How to choose stabilizers is beyond the scope of this article, but a quick and general summary would be:

For woven fabrics, use a tear away.

For stretchy or unstable fabrics, like knits or denim, use a cut away.

For a washable, sheer fabric where the back will be visible, use a wash away.

If your fabric cannot be washed, but the back will be visible, use a heat away.

For fabrics with an unstable weave, use a fusible

For fabrics or projects that cannot be hooped, use a sticky tear away.

3. Select an appropriate weight of stabilizer

The general rule of thumb here is to use more stabilizer for embroideries with more stitches and higher density. Sometimes using more layers of a lighter weight stabilizer is preferable to using a heavier stabilizer.

4. Test stitch to check tensions, needle type, fabric type, embroidery density, thread, and even stitching speed.

All embroidery digitizing is not created equal, even from same company, so test stitching can actually save you time in the long run, and certainly can save you a lot of heartache and frustration. How a design is digitized, together with the combination of stabilizer, fabric, and threads, can make a huge difference in the quality of the result.

5. Use the appropriate hoop size for embroidery.

The general rule is to use the smallest hoop that will fit the embroidery. Smaller hoops hold more even tension across the fabric.

6. Hoop carefully with proper tension.

There are a couple of techniques that can help with this.

Place double-sided basting tape on the underside of the inner hoop. When you straighten the fabric and place this hoop on top, the fabric is more likely to stay in place, lessening shifting and wrinkling.

Many machines allow you to baste your fabric onto the stabilizer. This is a good idea, even if the fabric is hooped properly. This is especially important with larger hoops and denser embroideries.

Hoop once, and tighten the tension screw until your fabric is drum tight, but not stretched. Un-hoop your fabric, then re-hoop, without changing the settings. This will even out the tension all around the hoop perimeter.

For most applications, hooping the fabric in the hoop with the stabilizer is the best and most stable way to keep your embroidery neat and smooth.

7. Stitch more slowly, especially for denser embroideries.

If your machine allows you to control your stitch speed, a slower speed can be more effective when you use specialty threads, have long satin stitches, or have dense embroideries.

8. Use wash away or permanent topper on knits and other napped fabrics.

Toppers can help keep stitches from sinking into the fabric. One topper choice that is rarely discussed is to use tulle on terry cloth towels. It is a permanent topper to hold down the loops, it tears away easily, and any little bits that do not tear away hide in the loops of the towel.

9. Tear away or cut away stabilizer carefully.

After the embroidery is finished, you want to be sure not to tug and tear at the stitches. Hold the embroidery along the edge with your non-dominant hand while you tear or cut carefully with your dominant hand.

10. Press your finished embroidery from the back, face down on a soft surface, such as a fluffy bath towel. This sets the stitches and helps keep the fabric from puckering in the wash later. Use an iron temperature appropriate for your fabric and threads.

Several of these tips require you to develop experience and skill, but most of them are easy for everyone, even a beginner with his or her first embroidery. Practiced regularly, these steps become habits, which will result in many successful and beautiful embroideries.

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