The Basics of Handstitching

Do you love the look of stitching on layouts but you don't have a sewing machine or have any desire to get a sewing machine? It's easy to add hand stitching to your projects!! Sometimes the hardest part is trying something new that you think might 'ruin' your layout. So take out some scrap paper and try some hand stitching to see how easy and fun it really is. You will need:

1. Paper piercer or something to poke holes in your paper
2. Ruler or something to line up your holes (if you want to)
3. Needle and thread

I typically use DMC floss, but any thread or fiber will do. Here are three easy steps to hand stitch a straight line on your paper.

1. Using a ruler, poke holes at a regular interval over a line. Or not. You can go freestyle and just poke holes that look like they are in a line. Depends on how you want it to look.
2. Thread your needle with DMC floss or any other thread.
3. Push the needle through the holes in a back and forth fashion. You can either skip holes or double back through the holes to form a complete line.

That's what I did on this card. I poked holes for flower stems and then double backed so the line of threading was solid.




I added the leaves with a white pen, but you could easily stitch the leaves as well. Here is another layout where I used stitching for the stems of flowers. You can see that the lines aren't very straight and I wasn't going for a very uniform straight line look.



You can also use stitching for a border on your page. Just follow the same instruction to add a little extra dimension and home spun feel to your layout. So get out your needle and thread and some scrap paper and try it!! I'll be back later this week with some other fun techniques for adding hand stitching to your layouts!!