Tutorial: How to Embroider on Minky Fabric

Minky is a gorgeous fabric.  It's texture is like silk with a gentle heaviness that provides comfort and warmth.  I love working with this stuff.  It's not the most compliant fabric with which to work, but if you do everything right, the end results are fantastic. 

When I decided I wanted to make blankets with minky and satin and sell the products on-line, I did a lot of research on how to make the blankets and what would make them sell.  Personalization was the key.  However, a good embroidery machine costs significantly more than what I wanted to spend or could afford in the beginning.  QVC was a fantastic relief in this case, because they have a payment plan option.  I bought a Brother PE-770 embroidery machine with a 5x7 hoop.  I decided on this one because one, I can transfer embroidery files from my computer with a USB stick, and two, it did not have a single negative review on any site that I looked at.  I trust the reviews of people that have bought the machine and used it.  In this case, it worked out very well.  I made 5 payments and surprisingly, it has already paid for itself. 

Before I bought the embroidery machine, I also researched the best materials for embroidering on minky.  I found some helpful sites that explained uses for each stabilizer, but nothing specific for minky.  So, here's my tutorial.

There are two types of stabilizer to use on minky.  First is the wash away stabilizer.  Joann sells Sulky in a 9 ft roll for around $17 on-line (http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp?pageName=search&flag=true&PRODID=prd37977 ). Wait until they have a 40% off coupon or google 'Joann Fabrics Coupons' to see available coupons.  Hobby Lobby also has it and they have a 40% off coupon every other week.  Stock up!!  Another source is from Threadart.com.  They sell nearly the exact same thing for $1.29 per yard and it is twice as wide as the sulky stabilizer from Joann's.  This is their link: http://www.threadart.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=24  I buy from ThreadArt because they offer great shipping prices; I buy a lot of their supplies in bulk so I get a small discount.

Wash away stabilizer prevents the minky fur from showing through the embroidery thread.  It's a necessary supply if you will be embroidering on minky.  Like the name suggests, the stabilizer will dissolve in cold water.  You can either wash the fabric after the embroidery is done or you can soak the design with a damp wash cloth.  It will not dissolve from the humidity in the air, but keep it in a plastic bag or the original packaging tube to be sure.  I'm a Klutz and yes I spill water on my work space.  The plastic bag is from experience!

The second stabilizer will be tear away stabilizer.  Again, I buy this from ThreadArt because they offer a 100 yd roll for $30.  It ends up costing me about $0.17 of tear away stabilizer for each design I do.  I purchased my 100 yd roll two months ago and will need another one soon!  I go through a lot!!!    http://www.threadart.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=17

I've found that the regular tear-away is sufficient for my needs.   There are different weights of stabilizer (heavy, medium, and light) and more of each type of stabilizer.  I've heard a lot of talk about self-adhesive stabilizer.  The best thing about this is being able to only hoop the stabilizer and then sticking a hard fabric (like a tote bag, super slippery material, or one that suffers from 'hoop burn') on top.  In short, you don't have to hoop a difficult fabric.  It's worth looking into, but once you get used to hooping minky, it's not difficult at all. 

BTW, hoop burn occurs with certain types of fabrics like oil cloth and others.  After you unhoop a fabric, the hoop impression may still be there and will not wash out.  It permanently alters the shape of the fabric.  Minky is not one of these fabrics, but test out a swatch of other materials before you do a finished piece.  Better safe than sorry!

Another great thing that you'll really want is temporary spray adhesive.  DO NOT GET PERMANENT!! BAAAAD idea!  :0)  I get mine from Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon and stock up.  ( http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/temporary-spray-adhesive-483586/) I can't find it any cheaper on-line, or if I do, the shipping cost negates the savings.  Again, I use Sulky, but I have not tried anything else although they are available.  I don't have much time nowadays to test new products like that because I am always doing a customer's blanket.  When I get time, I will update and put how these work.

As for thread, ThreadArt has the best deals.  I use the 40 wt thread and have not had a single problem with the quality or thread breakage.  Brothers are notorious for tension issues and I have had the same with my PE770.  To use both the smaller (1000M) and larger spools (5000M), my husband made this awesome contraption.  You can also buy one - google external universal thread holder and you should find one.  EBay has quite a few as well.  Here's a photo of the ingenius, but oh-so-handy thread holder.

Dont make fun of my messy sewing space.  I've cleaned it up since then.  A little bit.
JoAnn has coats and Clark polyester embroidery thread, but is nearly three times as expensive as ThreadArt's!!  The selection of colors for CandC is not as a broad and the engineering design of the bobbin is poor.  Madeira Polyneon from Fabric.com is top-notch, but slightly pricey.  Completely worth it!  Bobbin thread can be purchased in either the color of your thread or in black or white.  My bobbin thread is never seen so I choose white in the 5000M spools.  You'll need the contraption for this. 
Okay, so in conclusion, these are the supplies that we need:

Bobbin Thread
Tear Away Stabilizer
Temporary Spray Adhesive
Compatible Hoop for Machine
Wash Away Stabilizer
Polyester Embroidery Thread

Now let's embroider on some minky!
*A handy tip:  Put the hoop together without fabric and just tighten it.  Take the non-adjustable (inner) ring out and loosen the outer ring about 6-7 turns.  This will give you a good starting point for the minky and stabilizers.

First: Lay your minky fabric out without stretching it.  I put it on carpet so it doesn't slip. 
Second: Slide your hoop underneath the minky fabric exactly where you want your design to be.
Third: Lift your minky back away from the hoop.  Don't move the fabric or the hoop from the process.
Fourth:  Cut a piece of tear away stabilizer slightly larger than your bottom hoop if you're not using spray adhesive.  You can cut it slightly smaller or the same if you are using the spray.
Fifth *optional*: Spray the adhesive onto the stabilizer. 
Sixth: Fold your minky back onto the hoop and stabilizer.  Don't move the hoop and don't stretch out the minky in the process.  Make sure it has no wrinkles or bumps over the hoop area.
Seventh:  Cut a piece of wash away stabilizer slightly larger than your hoop area. 
Eigth:  Put the wash away stabilizer (doesn't matter which side faces up) onto the hoop area on top of the minky.
Ninth:  This is the hardest part!  Push the smaller non-adjustable ring of the hoop into the larger adjustable ring.  Keep everything on the floor and push the hoops together.  Try your best not to move the minky and to keep everything taut during this time.  Once the inner ring is inside of the outer ring and your fabric is nice and tight (doesn't have to be like a drum head, but if you can move it more than an 1/8 inch, re-hoop), tighten the screw to the outer hoop. 
You may not get it perfect the first time, but keep doing it and you will.  Here are some pictures to show you what it looks like after being hooped.

The wash away stabilizer:

The tear away stabilizer:

Tear away with temporary spray adhesive:

Brother PE-770 in action:

Tip: Hoop your fabric so the bulk of the material will hang over the moving part of the embroidery machine.  Obviously I didn't do that in this sample, but I learned that I should have and it would have made it easier. 

There you go!  Please let me know if I need to add anything!