Underlay has a few purposes and one of those is to secure to the fabric to the backing. This holds the fabric so it can't slide around causing registration problems or bunching. It also gives lift to the top stitches which requires less stitches to achieve the same coverage. Trading the adhesive for underlay should eliminate the thread breaks and improve the look. Janel Harris Dimensional Designs http://www.dimdesigns.com DesignShop Digitizing Melco On-Site Training