Today I thought it would be fun to learn a new stitch. Have you ever heard of the blanket stitch? This stitch is often used as a finishing and decorative stitch around the edge of a blanket which is where it got its name but it has many more uses. Let's learn the basic stitch first then go over some of its applications.
Here is what you will need;
COTTON FABRIC AND WOOD EMBROIDERY HOOP- A piece of scrap cotton fabric fit into a wood embroidery hoop. There should be about an inch and 1/2 overlap so that the fabric can be nice and taut.
NEEDLE - An embroidery needle that is size 8 or above.
THREAD- I like to use six stranded cotton thread. I like to divide the strands in half, using three at a time.
MARKING UTENSIL - It is really helpful to get a fabric marker to make straight lines to use as your stitch guide. I used a very dark fabric and light thread so that it would be easy to see. I used a white gel pen to draw my stitch line. If you are using a light fabric, anything will do. A sharp lead pencil is great or even a ball point pen. It is just for practice so it doesn't have to be washed out and it doesn't matter if you can see the line underneath.
SCISSORS - Nice sharp little scissors for trimming your thread.
O.K., now that you have learned the blanket stitch on a fabric surface, let's see it applied to finish the edge of a blanket. You can use a small piece of felt folded on half as your "blanket".
Another use for blanket stitch is Applique. Applique is way of attaching one fabric to the surface of another fabric.
For this example, I cut out a small felt heart and placed it on my hooped fabric.
There are SO many variations of the blanket stitch, I can't get to all of them but here are just a few ways to play with this fun stitch;
Well this concludes the blanket stitch tutorial! We haven't even gotten to all they ways we can play with this stitch but this should give you a healthy start!
I created a special pattern to practice the blanket stitch in the same way you learned here.
The heart in the pattern is attached using the blanket stitch with either a small felt heart or a piece of fabric of your choice. It is a simple but very sweet design that is easy to complete.
You may find that listing HERE at my shop along with many other fun and unique patterns.
Thank you so much for stopping by!
Warmly,
Pam