Ladies, I need help to embroider business names on some shirts for a family member. They are bowling shirts of this thinner polyester moisture wicking material. I have never done anything of this fabric and am not sure of what stabilizer to use. They have a lot of stretch. I am wondering if I can hoop or use the hoopless method, or if should touch it with an iron. Unsure if hoop marks or stitching marks from the basting stitches would show afterward. I have soft leave in, but no iron on except paper iron on tear away. I am sure I would want permanent stabilizer. Thanks for any help.

Thanks, ladies. I am 35 miles from any store who carries embroidery supplies, and have some soft and stitch by Pelon. I did a sample sew out on similar fabric, and think I will use this. It will soften with washing, and it did stitch out nice. I found I needed to lessen the stitch density on the lettering, though, so glad I could find an old shirt to do trial stitching on.

1 comment

by pennyhal2 15 Oct 2016

I look forward to seeing a picture of your results!

If the store is too far away to travel, you might want to start ordering supplies online. Even though I have a stores nearby but they don't always carry the type of stabilizers I want.

I use an iron-on No Show Mesh too. If it is really stretchy and the design is dense in places, I use two layers of iron-on Mesh, the second layer at a 90º to the first layer. If the topper is quite thin, I put a layer of wash away stabilizer on top too, but you'd have to rinse the wss out of the shirt so you may not want to do this. I slow the machine down and use a ball point needle too. If possible, I'd try and get a shirt to practice on so you get the design and stabilizers right.

I agree with Vicki about the no-show mesh stabilizer, and if the material is "stretchy" I would also use a ball point needle...and perhaps some wash away topper...

I have stitched on this type fabric on polo's for our local high school coaches and I use no show mesh.......I also slow my machine down a bit to help with the pull compensation........hope this helps.....