Lyn, when I got my embroidery machine I bought a sample pack of stabilisers to play with. I then bought tearaway by the metre from someone on EBay. I thought it was ok until I bought a roll of Janome iron-on, tearaway. It was a few pence more but much, much better in use. Sometimes you gets what you pays for! If you cost out the thread, the fabric, time, frustration etc a few pence more on the stabiliser is well worth spending. You don't HAVE to iron it on, and I economise a bit by sewing together the large pieces which I've torn away to reuse. I wouldn't do a big, dense design using recycled stabiliser but it's fine for outlines and the light, sketchy designs I like to use.