from Sewing and Textiles by Annabell Turner, 1918

The back stitch is one of the most common in embroidery and is useful for many types of sewing. It’s simple, strong and versatile, as well as being pleasing to the eye. To do a back stitch, you’ll need a piece of fabric to work on, a ruler and fabric pencil, a needle comfortable to the size of the fabric, and some embroidery floss or thread. Here is a step-by-step guide using orange embroidery floss and white fabric.

1. Mark the fabric with a ruler and washable fabric pencil. While this isn’t always necessary, it’s best if you want a clean line. Make sure the mark is light.

   

2. Thread the needle and tie a knot in the end of the thread. It’s best to keep the thread short- too long a thread can knot and become unwieldy. It’s tempting to cut a long length so you don’t have to “reload” as quickly, but shorter thread will make the project easier, especially when learning.

   

3. Insert the needle on the wrong side of the fabric to the left of where you want your first stitch to be. The stitch is usually worked from right to left, so you’ll want to insert the needle to the left of your starting point.

   

4. Pass the needle OVER the fabric to the right of the thread and UNDER the fabric to the left of the thread, in a straight line. This creates a stitch to the right of where the thread sits. Where the needle enters the fabric will be the starting-point for the stitch, and where the needle exits the fabric will be the end-point for the next stitch. You can control how long or short you want the stitches to be this way.

   
   

5. Repeat step four, inserting the needle just after the end-point of the last stitch. If you prefer a clean line with no spaces between stitches, insert the needle at the exit point of the last stitch. Otherwise, you can create a “dash” effect with as much space as you prefer between stitches.

   

   The back stitch is a base stitch for other embroidery stitches, such as the Pekinese stitch. It is also common for quilting and outlining complicated designs.

I’m not a genius, I just play one on Triond! Please let me know if you see any errors that need correcting.