Stitches

can anyone give me a step-by-step of how to do a stem stitch? (embroidery?) ?

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Public Comments

1. Suggest you go to the library and take out a book with pictures. But I will try. Cut off a length of embroidery floss, 18 inches. Separate two strands. Thread needle with the two strands Starting underneath the work push needle up, holding end tail underneath with your left hand thumb. Leave tail about 1 1 1/2 inch long. Underneath hold tail to the right, take needle and go back down about 1/4 inch from where you came up and to the right. From underneath place needle point half way between the first up and down. Your goal is to come back up in the middle of your last stitch. Meanwhile making sure you catch the tail end underneath with your stitches. This way you do not have knots. Keep going along this way. If you are working on a small project then make your stitches smaller. It is much easier to understand if you had pictures to look at.
2. http://www.embroiderersguild.com/stitch/stitches/stem.html What you're doing is the backside of a backstitch, slightly slanted. Stem stitch is sometimes distinguished from outline stitch... outline is worked in exactly the same way, but the loop of thread, as you're forming the stitch, is held to the other side, so all the slanty stitches go in the other direction.