A tearaway stabilizer is the backing of choice for many embroiderers. Designs can usually be finished more quickly, safely, and cheaply with a tear-away backing than with a cut away stabilizer. If you cut one expensive garment, the advantages of tearaways will be with you for life. Most tearaways range in weight from 1 to 3 oz/yd2. To perform well as a backing, a tear-away should be stable and able to withstand repeated perforations. The backing should tear easily and cleanly in either direction. This seems obvious but some embroiderers are still using backings that tear only in one direction. These products have to be tugged at, leave long strings of fiber, and take some courage to remove. Pulling a tough tear away too hard or too quickly on a delicate long stitch design can needlessly cause distortions.
No matter the type of tear away stabilizer, the accepted wisdom is you should tear the backing as close to the stitches as possible to reduce any chance of distortion. Using two light layers of tearaway pulled off one at a time is a technique that can avoid a distortion problem. However, this procedure is relatively expensive and time consuming.

Finally, in choosing a tearaway machine embroidery backing, most embroiderers consider ease of tear, cleanness of tear, hoop stability, and perforation resistance as important factors in their selection process.