What Is Floating in Machine Embroidery?
Floating is a machine embroidery technique where you hoop only the stabilizer, then secure your fabric or project on top of the hoop instead of placing it inside the hoop rings. It's used for fabrics that can be damaged by hoop tension, like velvet or knits, and for items too bulky or too small to fit inside a standard hoop, like towels, bags, or quilts. Floating protects delicate or bulky materials while still giving your machine the stability it needs to stitch a clean design, friend, and once you've tried it on the right project, you'll wonder how you ever hooped a bath towel in the first place.
If you've ever wondered why some embroiderers swear they never hoop a project, this is what they're talking about. Floating is when you hoop just the stabilizer, snug and taut inside the hoop rings, and then place your fabric or item on top instead of sandwiching it between the inner and outer hoop.
It sounds like a small shift, but it solves a handful of real problems.
Why floating matters
Some fabrics simply don't do well under hoop tension. Velvet and knits are the classic examples. When you clamp them between the inner and outer hoop, the pressure crushes the fibers, and you end up with a permanent indentation called hoop burn. Once that nap gets flattened, it doesn't always bounce back.
Bulky or oddly shaped items run into a different problem. Towels, vinyl, bags, and finished quilts are often too thick, too rigid, or just too big to fit neatly inside a hoop's rings. Trying to force them in usually means fighting the fabric the whole time, and fighting the fabric is never a good sign for how the stitch out is going to look.
Floating is also standard practice for in-the-hoop projects, where you're building something like a mini quilt directly on top of stitched-out stabilizer or batting rather than embroidering onto fabric that's already finished.
How to secure a floated project
Since your fabric isn't locked into the hoop itself, you need another way to keep it from shifting mid-stitch. A few tried and true options:
- Sticky-back stabilizer is a favorite for good reason. You hoop it with the paper liner facing up, score around the inside edge, peel the paper away, and you've got a tacky surface that holds your project in place without a single pin.
- Temporary spray adhesive works well too, especially on fabrics that are hard to pin without leaving holes. A light, even coat is all you need. Too much and you end up with a gummy mess on your needle.
- Pins outside the embroidery area are an option if you're comfortable with them, though plenty of embroiderers skip pins altogether out of concern for scratching the machine bed.
- If your machine has a built-in basting stitch, that's another way to tack fabric down before the design starts, and it stitches out cleanly enough to remove afterward.
Floating versus hooping
None of this means floating should replace hooping for everything. When a fabric can go in the hoop without a problem, hooping it directly is still your most stable option and generally gives the cleanest result. Floating is the tool you reach for when the fabric or the item genuinely calls for it, not a default habit. Think of it as one more technique in your back pocket for the projects that a standard hoop just can't handle gracefully.
Getting comfortable with it
Like most embroidery skills, floating gets easier the second and third time you try it. Start with something low stakes, maybe a scrap of the same fabric you're planning to use, and get a feel for how much adhesive or how many pins your particular project needs before you commit to the real thing.
Ready to try floating on your next project? Browse our machine embroidery supplies, including Kimberbell's wash-away sticky-back stabilizer, to find the right setup for your fabric: My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe | Machine Embroidery
Frequently Asked Questions
Does floating work with every embroidery machine?
Yes, floating is a hooping technique rather than a machine feature, so it works with any embroidery machine. What matters is your hoop and stabilizer setup, not the machine brand.
Can I float knit fabric instead of hooping it?
Yes, floating is actually the recommended approach for knits, since hooping them directly can stretch or crush the fibers and lead to hoop burn or a distorted design.
What's the difference between floating on top and floating underneath?
Both refer to the same basic idea, hooping the stabilizer and keeping the fabric out of the hoop rings, but the fabric can sit either on top of the hooped stabilizer or the stabilizer can sit beneath an unhooped project depending on the setup you need.
Do I still need stabilizer if I'm floating?
Yes, stabilizer is still essential when floating. It's actually the piece that gets hooped, since the whole point of floating is to keep the fabric itself out of the hoop.
Some of the details here, like exactly how loose to leave that hoop screw or what stretched fabric actually looks like once it comes back out of the hoop, are just easier to catch on camera. Kris demonstrates the whole hooping and floating process step by step in this class, including the fabric-stretching test that shows puckering in real time. Watch that section here:
P.S. Still working out your hooping setup? We would love to help. Reach us at info@mygirlfriendsquiltshoppe.com or 435-213-3229.