steam-a-seam 2 lite & embroidery

[thisisserious]

I have Steam-A-Seam 2 Lite and the directions don't make any sense. Do I stick the Steam-A-Seam to the fabric that I'm going to be embroidering on before embroidering or after? I want to say before but then the thread on the back would cover all of the Steam-A-Seam so I'm so confused. Haha.

Any help would be appreciated.<3

[thismomsews]

what are you using it for?  the purpose of it is to fuse two fabrics together. 

It sounds to me that you are trying to use it as a stabilizer?  If so, it won't work for that purpose.  you need to get either some tear away or water soluble stabilizer-by sulky

If you want to cover the stitching on the back once you are finished, take the paper off one side of the steam a seam and iron to a different piece of fabric  leaving the paper on the other side. (cut so it will cover the back of your stitched piece)  Then take the other paper off and put the fabric with the steam a seam stuck to it onto the back of your stitched piece and iron.. Now all of the stitching on the back is covered up. 

[thisisserious]

what are you using it for?  the purpose of it is to fuse two fabrics together. 

It sounds to me that you are trying to use it as a stabilizer?  If so, it won't work for that purpose.  you need to get either some tear away or water soluble stabilizer-by sulky

If you want to cover the stitching on the back once you are finished, take the paper off one side of the steam a seam and iron to a different piece of fabric  leaving the paper on the other side. (cut so it will cover the back of your stitched piece)  Then take the other paper off and put the fabric with the steam a seam stuck to it onto the back of your stitched piece and iron.. Now all of the stitching on the back is covered up. 

I'm doing a custom order and the customer has been beyond horrible with responding so I'm now on an extremely tight deadline. The custom order is for embroidered shirts. Due to the tight deadline, I want to do the embroidery on separate fabric and then when I receive the shirts, simply attach the embroidery. I'm not trying to use the Steam-A-Seam 2 as a stabilizer. (By the way, thank you for the Sulky stabilizer recommendation. I haven't used stabilizer yet but am getting really into embroidery and wasn't sure which brand of stabilizer to buy; Sulky will now be my first choice.)

These are the directions that come with the Steam-A-Seam 2:

1. Trace appliqué design in reverse on paper liner and remove the second liner. (Check to see which liner removes first by peeling apart at the corner. Trace on the liner still attached to the web.) Skip tracing if you are not using a pattern.
2. Stick Steam-A-Seam 2 to the wrong side of the appliqué material.
3. Cut Steam-A-Seam 2 and material together along traced lines.
4. Peel off remaining paper liner (leaving the web on the fabric) and stick appliqué to second material. Reposition as desired.
5. Press for 10-15 seconds for cotton fabric (longer with a press cloth). Adjust temperature and pressing time to suit your fabric. Repeat, slightly overlapping pressed areas until complete.

I'm just really confused because it says nothing about the embroidering process. You're saying to:

1. Cut the Steam-A-Seam to the size of the applique.
2. Peel off the paper from one side of the Steam-A-Seam, stick it onto the shirt, and then iron it in place.
3. Remove the remaining paper, stick the applique on top, and then iron in place.

That's confusing too because from my understanding, ironing the Steam-A-Seam permanently sets both sides of the webbing. Do I have no idea what I'm talking about? Haha.

[hbic]

I use Steam-a-Seam a lot. Are you planing on cutting out the embroidery then Steam-a-Seaming it on to the shirts? It will work fine but it will probably look like an iron on patch unless you finish the edges nicely. But the explanation given above is correct. i peel off the paper on one side, place it and smooth it down. THen peel off the second peice of paper and place the other peice of fabric on top and iron the whole shebang at once. I make whole sheets of thse sandwiches and cut my peices out of it. That wont work for what your doing though.

If you are going to Steam the embroidery on to the shirt I think you would do it this way :
Embroider your piece.
Peel paper off one side of S-a-S and stick on to back of embroidery.(I've never tried to iron it at this stage with the paper still on the other side but you probably could.)
Cut out/around your embroidery.
Peel off second paper backing and place on to shirt.
Iron. Viola! Done.

I'd definately practice this a few times to see if you get the results you want. Let us know how it works out!

[thisisserious]

thank you so much!
i'm going to play around with the steam-a-seam and try to remember to post the results.