Holding embroidery stitches in?

I had a class a few years ago that I made a pillow in and I gave it to a friend. However, now I'm going back and making him a blanket to match it but I need something that will help keep the stitching in if it's going to go through the wear and tear of a blanket. What's a good product that I could put on the back of it to maybe mold the tied strings in to hopefully hold it without ruining it? Also, this is hand-embroidering not machine and I'm not the greatest at it yet.

Even though this is hand embroidery and not machine embroidery, you can use a technique that is sometimes used in machine embroidery. There are products on the market used to stabilize the fabric when you are stitching with a machine. They are called stabilizers (I know, that's kind of a "duh" but it's better for me to over-explain than leave holes in my answer that you might not understand). Some of these stabilizers are treated so that they can be ironed onto the back of the fabric. My favorite is a sheer lightweight type that is similar in appearance to tricot. In the case of children's clothing, many sewists will iron on an additional piece of this sheer stabilizer over the back of the design after all the stitching is done to both hold the stitches in place and prevent the thread from irritating young skin. You might want to do that same thing for your blanket.

Is this blanket going to be a single layer of fabric? Or are you doing a quilt? If it is going to be a quilt, is the embroidery going to be only on the top layer or is it going to be all the way through (doing the quilting of the piece)? That will make a difference in techniques, although the stabilizer technique can be used in all but the quilting with embroidery option.

Good luck, and I'm sure your friend will love your gift!

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