If you have ever wondered whether or not water soluble topping was really necessary on fabrics with a high nap, read on.

Achieving good embroidery results with high nap fabrics such as terry cloth is easy if you use the right tools. High nap fabrics present a unique problem not found with most other fabrics. The high nap can easily get caught up in your stitching. Failure to use a suitable topping to hold down the nap will cause undesireable results. Many manufacturers offer a translucent water soluble topping (WSS) that is ideal for this type embroidery.

Take a look at the photo below to see just how much difference water soluble topping makes when embroidering a design on high nap fabrics. Both examples show a portion of a design that was sewn on the same terry cloth fabric using the same embroidery file. Any differences in color or texture you see are simply due to the photography.

As you can see in the photo on the left, much of the nap was pulled into the stitching as the machine sewed the design. There was nothing to hold down the nap in this example. The photo on the right shows the results when embroidered using a layer of WSS on the top. The difference between these two examples is quite substantial.

There's no trick or special technique involved with using WSS. You can hoop it with your fabric or simply float a piece on top of the fabric when you begin sewing your design. I prefer to hoop the topping with the fabric as it helps hold down the nap better. You may use any method that works well for you.

Keep a spray bottle of water handy to mist the topping with water once the design is complete. It will dissolve almost instantly allowing you to easily remove the excess. One little trick I learned is to wad up the large piece of WSS that you removed and use it to dab the fabric. Doing so will pick up and remove any small pieces that remain. Any residue left after the fabric dries will dissappear completely when the fabric is washed.

Using WSS does add a small amount to the final cost of your embroidery project, but as you can see the results are well worth the expense.

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