Proms, graduations, weddings -- many formal occasions take place in the warmer months when lightweight fabrics such as chiffon are part of the fashion scene.

Chiffon is a thin, sheer fabric made from cotton, silk, or polyester. It is most commonly used as an overlay to gowns and formal evening wear to give an elegant and floating appearance.

Chiffon is also used in summery scarves - for a dresser, table, and your body!

Because chiffon is so transparent, I wanted to use a water-soluble stabilizer so that it would be entirely removed after stitching. I tested with Sulky Ultra Solvy. You can certainly use tear-away or cutaway stabilizers, but they'll be visible from the front side of your stitchout.

Chiffon is slippery, so it was important for me to get a nice tight bond between the fabric and stabilizer. I sprayed the stabilizer with a bit of temporary adhesive (KK100 - not too much, or the water-soluble stabilizer dissolves), then smoothed the fabric on top.

To begin, I selected an open and light Swallow design. This design is composed entirely of satin stitches, so it was a good way to begin my test. Generally satin stitches are heavier than other types, so any tendency toward puckering or dimpling will be evident right away.

The result was great! The stitches are clean and crisp, and there is no shifting or gapping.

Next I tested a design with a blend of satin and running stitches. I stitched the Avant Garden Flower 6 design onto the chiffon.

The results are perfect. Vintage designs, Redwork, toile - most designs that you find in the Quick Stitch category - will work well on chiffon.

Avoid designs that have fills, or anything complex with layering or shading. Those types of designs put too much stress on the chiffon, as you will soon see.

In addition to poor draping, the stitchout also has shifting and gapping in the results. The needle perforations caused the water-soluble stabilizer to disintegrate, leaving nothing behind to prevent the shifting of the fabric fibers.

As a result, sections of the design don't line up where they should. It's most noticeable along the left side of the frame.

When working with a design that has a solid fill, cutaway stabilizer works best - so using a cutaway stabilizer would resolve this issue. But then the stabilizer would show through the chiffon; a bit of a Catch-22. To avoid this problem, choose simple, light, open, and airy designs.