Backstitch by Hand

While working on another Instructable, I realized I was going to need to do some hand stitching. I decided to put together an 'ible showing how to do the stitch I would need (that other 'ible is starting to get a bit too long).

There are a couple of hand stitch options you could go with for attaching pieces and fixing ripped stitches. The backstitch is a strong and flexible stitch that is supposed to resemble machine stitches. This stitch is also great because if something were to happen and a stitch broke, all of your other stitches wouldn't unravel.

This is a crazy easy stitch, but if you aren't good at stitching in a straight line, you may want to use tailors chalk or something that will rub/wash out to mark a line for your stitches to follow.

Thread

Fabric

Sewing needles

I purposefully used a neon color thread to demonstrate this stitch on dark fabric. Thread your needle.

Insert the needle into the fabric and come out the other side. From the back, reinsert the needle up and pull the thread all the way through.

This is where the backstitch starts. Instead of inserting the needle down to the right, you're going to insert it to the left at the base of the previous stitch.

These stitches are actually further apart than I was planning. You can make them much closer together.

Keep in mind, the "front" and the "back" sides of the stitch look very different.

I find reading text instructions for stitches to be hard sometimes, so here's a video demonstration.