Hooping Hacks: Splicing Stabilizer


Stabilizer too small for your hoop? Here is an easy fix!

As hoop sizes get larger and larger, we are sometimes challenged to have the right sized stabilizer on hand. That does not mean that you can’t use what you have.

Supplies can be expensive, unless you are a member of Ann’s Club, then you can get stabilizer at half-price. Even then, who wants to be wasteful?

The Snap Hoop Monster (SHM) by Designs in Machine Embroidery is one of my most favorite machine embroidery accessories. It makes hooping almost effortless. I was using my 200 x 260 mm SHM while stitching one of my magazine projects and did not have a stabilizer on hand that was wide enough for the hoop. The stabilizer I had was just shy of the hoop edges, so I added extensions.

I cut two pieces of stabilizer just a bit wider than I needed and added a strip of fusible seam tape along the edge of each side. (You could also use a double-sided tape if you like.) I overlapped them on both edges of the main stabilizer and fused them in place.

The extensions were outside of the embroidery area so there was no worry about having to stitch through both layers and having the design come out lumpy and bumpy. All I needed was enough to secure my stabilizer in the hoop.

It worked beautifully and allowed me to use the stabilizer that I had on hand.

Debbie SewBlest

Please login to comment