How to Keep Embroidery From Puckering

Why does my embroidery pucker?

A common problem that you may have come across when you’re stitching is that the fabric starts to pucker. So frustrating! There could be a few reasons as to why your embroidery fabric is gathering and a few different ways to keep the embroidery from puckering.

This post is a part of a series about how to embroider for beginners.

Use The Proper Frame Or Hoop

It helps to invest in good equipment, and fabric tension is essential when you’re embroidering. Using high quality hoops or a slate frame will help keep the fabric nice and taut.

Make Sure Your Fabric Is Tight In The Embroidery Hoop

Leaving the fabric loose in an embroidery hoop makes it easier for the fabric to gather under the tension of your stitches.

When you put the fabric in an embroidery hoop, you don’t want it to have any wrinkles or appear loose. You want it to be similar to the tightness of a drum, but not so tight that it’s warping the grain of the fabric.

If you find you’re having trouble with the fabric slipping while you’re stitching, check out these tips to help keep the fabric tight in an embroidery hoop.

Use An Embroidery Stabilizer

Are you embroidering on delicate or stretchy fabric? Both of these fabrics are more challenging to use. It may help to use an embroidery stabilizer on the back of the fabric. This will help prevent the fabric from puckering and wrinkling and it will be so much easier to embroider on.

Select A Different Fabric

Fabric can make or break your embroidery. It’s best to stick with natural fabrics that don’t have elastic in them. Check out this post about how to find the best fabric for embroidery to select one that will set you up for success.

Avoid Overly Tight Stitches

Try to focus on making your stitches secure, but not too tight when embroidering. If you notice the fabric grain warping around your stitches or that there are exaggerated holes in the embroidery fabric, you may need to make your stitches a bit looser. With practice, you’ll be able to find a happy medium!

How to Fix Puckered Embroidery

If you’ve already stitched on the fabric and it’s puckering, you either have to loosen or completely take out some of the embroider stitches. Place your needle underneath the stitches and try to loosen them first to see if the fabric smooths out.

However, if that doesn’t remedy the problem, you can use a seam ripper to take them out. Be careful to not catch the fabric in the seam ripper when removing them! You’ll have to decide on a case by case basis whether the embroidery is worth revising or saving, or if you’ll need to start over!

Another option: sometimes wet blocking helps to get rid of minor wrinkles. Check out this tutorial on my Patreon to see how to do it.