How to Embroider with a Running Stitch

This is our first day of stitching, I hope you were able to get everything transferred and your hoop set up yesterday. Let's get started on this stitching. Today's stitch is the running stitch, it's the most basic stitch. 

First, cut off approximately 24" of floss for this stitching. Thread the needle with the floss. Tie a knot at one of the ends of the floss. Pull the floss so the un-knotted side has approximately 10" of floss.

From the back pierce the fabric with the point of your needle at the beginning of the bottom line. From the top, pull the needle through the fabric until the knot reaches the back of the fabric.

Send your needle back in to the fabric following the same line approximately 1/8-1/4" from where you came up.

Reach around the bottom and pull the needle until all of the floss is through to the back. That is the running stitch.

Repeat the stitch by sending the needle up next to where the first stitch ended. Pull all of the floss up through the hole and then send the needle back down along the line. Continue this stitch until you get to the end of this row.

Note about stitch length; Stitches can be any size you would like, most of the time it's more about consistency than size. I say most of the time because if your going for a playful or wonky look, than you probably are wanting the stitches to be all of the same. Just remember there are no rules.

Now it's time to end the stitch. You can tie a knot on the back, but I like to weave my ends in instead. Why? It's easy and it looks nicer. Now that being said, if I were stitching on clothing or something that would be moving or getting washed a lot, then I would definitely tie a knot instead.

Using the needle point send the needle under your last full stitch.

Pull the floss all the way through and then send the needle through the next stitch. Make sure you're not catching any fabric when doing this.

Do this for about 5 to 6 stitches, you just want to make sure if the floss were to come out of a stitch or two it would still be secure.

Trim the thread.

Now you are ready to begin the second row, but before you do, let's separate the thread. This row will use five strands instead of six. That way you can use this sampler as a reference for thickness as well.

You most likely have enough thread left to continue using what is on your needle already. To separate it, you'll need to take the floss off the needle though. Start by finding one of the strands of floss at the end. Give it a little pull while holding the three strands in your hand. The remaining threads will bunch up a bit. When they do pull them back down to straighten and then pull the single strand from the top again. Hopefully, if everything goes well, you should have five strands together and one loose strand. Set that one strand aside and you can use it for the last row later.

Tangling; Floss can tangle pretty easy, the secret is never pull anything too hard, if you are gentle about pulling threads then the knots or tangles usually stay loose enough that you can work them out without too much headache. Every now and then, you just have to cut the darn thread out and start over if your tangle won't come undone!

Stitch the second row just as you did the first row. Then remove another strand of floss and continue to the next row, and so on and so on until you have all six rows of running stitches finished up.

This is good practice because most embroidery stitches have the running stitch as a base.

Let's say you make a mistake, maybe you stitch wasn't as straight as you were hoping for or maybe it was too long... you know how it goes. Good news, when embroidering it's super easy to fix those mistakes. Take the needle off of the floss and slide it under the stitch that you want to remove.

Give it a tug until the floss is out. Thread your needle and resew the stitch.

Okay, get all six of those running stitch rows finished up and I will be back tomorrow with the back stitch.

Hop you're having fun!

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