My mom made me blocks on white muslin. It's a family thing, she embroidered all our family on it, with birthdates (she did it for all of us, so it's not just my faulty memory :lol: ) She didn't use any stablizer but she did the embroidery by hand.
My suggestion would be to try using the used dryer sheets for stablizer, though. I'm loving using them for string quilts and I know that they are wonderful when I'm doing some hand embroidery on thinner fabrics.
Sharon