There are two main ways to store a gimbal. The first is through pre-planning, placing the gimbal a bit differently than usual, and the second is by using the leftover gimbal after you’ve used it to embroider.

The way you cut and position your stabilizer can expand the amount of embroidery you can sew, saving you money. When you cut your original piece, either cut or torn to fit into your hoop, cut it to the size you want in one dimension, either long or wide, but much longer in the other dimension. For example, if you are cutting an 8″ wide piece for a 4×4 rim, you could cut the stabilizer to 8″ x 24″. Embroider the first design on one end. After carefully cutting or tearing the stabilizer from the finished design, reattach the hoop at the same end for your next design, starting just past the torn section. You may need to press the stabilizer with a dry iron on low heat between hoops if it is wrinkled. You can now reuse more stabilizer, possibly being able to sew four (4) embroideries, depending on your size, from one piece, instead of the three (3) embroideries you would get by cutting three 8″x8″ pieces. Take this idea to the extreme and don’t cut your length at all. I hoop your stabilizer, leaving the coil attached towards the top of the hoop. Place the roll behind the machine, out of the way of the hoop, embroidery arm, or any thread. After completing the embroidery, remove the stabilizer, press the wrinkles, and re-hoop the front edge.

After embroidering with most removable stabilizers, there are still more uses for leftover stabilizer. It is helpful to cut strips of the excess to use for back buttonholes, under decorative stitches, along edges that do not want to cooperate, or along edges where decorative stitches will be sewn off the edge of the fabric and need to be sewn. stabilizer bracket. .

Larger pieces that are too small to hoop are good for floating under other embroidery as needed to support more stitching. Be sure to place the smaller piece under the area to be embroidered.

I often use Sulky’s Totally Stable, a removable fuse, partly because it’s so easy to reuse. It is also a versatile and useful stabilizer. Totally Stable can be lightly fused to the back of the fabric, and after removing the excess of the full embroidery, that excess can be fused to the back of a new piece of fabric. Smaller pieces can be torn from other stabilizer scraps to be fused over the hole or the strips can be fused side by side, overlapping slightly.

After cutting a stabilizer trim from the back of an embroidered design, trim a wide strip from each of the four (4) sides of the scrap piece. A rotary cutter and ruler come in handy for this. This effectively trims the jagged edges around the center hole. When you have collected a bunch of these strips, overlap the edges slightly and sew them together, both lengthwise and sometimes across, depending on the relative lengths of the strips, using a 4-5mm basting stitch. Any thread is fine, as you can trim it if necessary. Once a piece is a rectangle large enough to fit in the embroidery hoop, this stabilizer tile can be reused. This new piece is not as secure as a solid piece and should be used in lighter applications or layered with nylon organza for embroidered decoupage techniques.