I don't do machine embroidery but I have heard of tear-away and wash-away stabilizers. Would these work? Re-read your comments and I think you mean that it is the fabric that you are doing the applique out of, that you have to trim? If so, good luck! That sounds incredibly difficult to me.

Yes I'm trimming the applique fabric. Not the stabilizer (that's tearaway). It's the fabric that I'm goofing up on.
So far so good today.
I'm going so slow I'm almost going backwards :)

when i do emb. applique.... i print the design as a pattern and cut my fabric to the exact size,, place it on the first stitching and then let the machine do the rest

That's genius!! I'm have the last one in the machine now, but if I ever try this again, that's what I'm going to do. Why didn't I think of that?
Thank you so much!!! :thumbup: :thumbup:

www.emblibrary.com has tutorials that show how to do this as Kathy explained :D:D:D