They do make black stabilizer. Floriani has beige, white and black. Sulky has some colors. I have seen a smoke color.

There is also a spray that makes the fabric stiff. Some designs will allow for a wash away stabilizer. It's okay to use 2 layers of wash away.

I seem to have 2 very annoying problems: which stabilizer to use and how to stop getting puckers.

Can u explain the puckers?

Now that you've added puckers to the symptoms, I suspect that it could be a tension problem, or a dull needle.

Is the design that is causing problems a generic design or is it your sewing machine brand specific? For instance, a Bernini machine AND bernina design OR Bernina machine and different embroidery design.

Digitizing can vary in quality and you might not know until you go to all the trouble of stitching it out and seeing the problem or opening the design in an embroidery software and see the individual stitches. Some designers are wonderful and no need to worry. Some skimp and the design looks thin and wimpy.

Most embroidery machines will compensate for tension but you can manually adjust the tension, too. Some machines can be slowed down like half speed for dense design areas.

Needles are very important and volumes have been published on needles and embroidery thread. What I use might not work for your machine. Do you have needle breakage during stitch outs? What are you using in the bobbin?

What needle are you using?

A good rule of thumb is to change your needle around 30K stitches. I change it for each project to keep it easy.

Hooping is key. Some machines have a basting mode so that the stabilizer is hooped and fabric is basted on top. Sometimes it's too hard to get the fabric and stabilizer hooped tight enough. You almost want to be able to bounce a quarter off the hooped stabilizer, get it really tight.

When was the last time you had your machine in for maintenance? If you have had a thread jam your hook could be slightly off or timing needs adjusting. If you do need maintenance, take your emb. Unit so they can test it. Also take samples of problem stitch outs.

Don't get too frustrated. Review your manual to make sure you aren't overlooking a step. Take a break and go back to it with clear eyes.

I have a Brother SE400 that is brand new minus maybe 10 designs I've done so far and have never done machine embroidery before. I'm using the needle that came with the machine. I have an awful time hooping the fabric I want the sew. I've heard that stretching the fabric too tight causes the puckering. I just can't seem to figure out how to get the right 'tightness". The puckering usually doesn't show while the fabric is in the hoop but is apparent when the hoop is removed. I'd like to try basting the fabric to the stabilizer but don't think my machine does that; it would be nice if it did. I wonder if I could do that by hand or maybe pins.

Read the question section. It has over 800 questions and answers.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003AVMZA4/?tag=embroiderymachinereview2-20

On line class site

http://www.craftsy.com/classes/embroidery

Thank you. I just signed up for it.

Hooping 'drum tight' may be causing puckering issues. The philosophy of hooping has changed over the years. Fabric needs to be properly stabilized - depending on your fabric, thread, final use and density of design you may need more or fewer layers of tearaway or cutaway. You might also need a topper to prevent stitches from sinking into the fabric. But the fabric should be hooped to the same degree of tension as you want the final product to be, not drum tight.