Blanket Stitch Instructions

Any good seamstress will tell you that one of the most handy stitches to know is a blanket stitch. It is used to sew the edge of thick blankets or any other heavy and thick fabric. It is also used for sewing hand appliqué to a fabric. Of all the different types of embroidery stitches, it is the easiest to master and is usually done by hand, although you can do it in a sewing machine too. The trick to having a nice even looking blanket stitch is that all the individual stitches should be of the same size and they should be evenly spaced. Blanket stitching will come in useful for many other sewing projects for both adults and children.

Simple Blanket Stitch

Here is a step by step instructions for blanket stitch that will teach you how to make a simple blanket stitch on a piece of fabric.

• The first thing that you need to do is to thread a needle with a strand of embroidery thread and then make a secure knot on one end.
• Take your piece of fabric and hold it tight in front of you. Draw a line about ½ cm away from the top edge of the fabric, which is parallel to it.
• Now insert the needle from the bottom side to the top at the edge of the fabric at the left.
• Now insert the needle again from the drawn line and take the needle out at the edge of the fabric, directly opposite to the location where the needle was inserted.
• As you draw the needle out through the top edge of the fabric, make sure that the thread is under the needle.
• The resulting stitch will look like a square and this is what we are aiming for.
• Again insert the needle at the line at equal distance and take it out parallel to it at the edge.
• Place the thread under the needle and draw out the needle slowly, making sure that the stitch is secure.
• Repeat steps, making sure that the height as well as the spacing of the stitch is maintained.
• When you finish, insert the needle through the back of the stitch and secure with a knot.

Machine Blanket Stitch

It is possible to do blanket stitch in a sewing machine provided you have the right embroidery sewing machine. Different sewing machines depending upon whether they are manual or automatic, will have different setting for sewing it. For a manual sewing machine, you need to set the set the needle tension to 1. Then you have set the fabric into the machine and start stitching along the edge of the fabric. You can also roll the edge of the fabric to make decorative blanket stitch along the edge of the fabric.

Embroidery Blanket Stitch

Many beautiful embroidery can be made with blanket stitch. It is also used in knitting patterns for baby blankets. Another very important embroidery that is made with the blanket stitch is known as the button hole wheel. It is often used for making floral motifs while embroidering. To make this stitch, you need to simply make a blanket stitch in the form of a circle so that each stitch passes through one central point. Make sure that the blanket stitch are evenly and tightly spaced, otherwise the embroidery stitches will be ruined and these tips on embroidery stitches will go waste.

Blanket stitch is one of the most simple and easiest stitch to master. It comes in very useful for making appliqués and for embroidery. Now that you know how to make blanket stitches, you can make any embroidery project with it.