Are you new to hand stitching? The beauty of sewing with felt is that you can hand stitch the felt with no seam allowances. Making for delightfully simple and stress relieving sewing projects.
Hand stitching can be incredibly meditative, much like knitting or crochet. And there are many stitches to learn, both in basic hand sewing as well as decorative embroidery.
Here I have created several diagrams illustrating the very basic hand stitch techniques. Most of these can be used in some form or other with may of my felt sewing patterns. With a little practice you can be sewing these like a pro in no time.
Taking your stitching on the road? I often bring my sewing with me while I do errands and appointments. For those of you sewing on the go help yourself to this printable hand stitching diagram cheat sheet.
Hand Stitching Cheat Sheet Illustrations
How to use this hand stitching cheat sheet?
What you see is what you get! Each diagram shows just how a stitch is formed. Copy the diagram and practice practice, practice!
A run down of each of the stitches:
Running Stitch – The most basic of stitches. A simple straight stitch. Very easy to start with.
Blanket Stitch – My favorite to use. This is the stitch you will see running on the edges of a simple fleece blanket. I use to for the outer seams of most of my projects.
Back Stitch – A stronger form of the running stitch, also used for embroidery purposes for making lines. For example, I use a back stitch when creating a mouth on a doll, or decorative swashes and/or writing.
Ladder Stitch – A popular stitch for making plushes and hiding seams.
Whip Stitch – Another very basic stitch for securing seams together. Suitable for most any of my toy and doll patterns.
Chain Stitch – A more decorative embroidery stitch. Great for adding a decorative detail to your felt sewing projects.
Stay tuned as I will be adding more diagrams, examples in pictures, and maybe even some videos somewhere down the line.
These hand stitches are invaluable! You can use them in not only felt projects like the ones on this site, but in countless other embroidery and sewing projects. Hand sewing skills are a wonderful skill to possess!
On that note, I would absolutely love to hear from you about your sewing projects. Please feel free to share your sewing and embroidery pictures.