filling a space with tiny stitches
It’s been a busy week or so since coming back from Lincolnshire, thank goodness for the morning sea swim to wake me up ready for what have been quite long days of stitching and computer work. The pictures above are sneak peeks into my Christmas friends pattern and kit (which will be ready very soon!). As you can see I’ve been making a lot of tiny stitches and thinking about filling spaces with stitch. You can change up how you fill a coat or boots to change the look of the design and make it more your own. I have had fun this week creating patterns using simple stitches.
There are lots of stitches that you can use to fill spaces. Satin stitch (on the blue coat pocket) is not my favourite stitch but it works well if you want a solid colour in a small space like the blue pocket on the coat in the first picture.
I love split stitch for hair as it has a nice texture to it and gives a sense of curls or waves. I’ve used it for the cream tights in the last picture as it looks a little bit knitted. Chain stitch in rows on a jumper is perfect to replicate the knit pattern too. And I love back stitch for filling spaces. It’s perfect for solid colour areas like the orange wellies above.
At the moment my favourite ways to fill spaces are seed stitch and running stitch.
Starting with seed stitch. I admit to loving seed stitch because you can fill an area in effectively and quite quickly while creating a pattern. The blue coat in the picture above is filled with seed stitches. They are tiny stitches (mine are about 1 to 1.5mm long) stitched in different directions. The trick is to keep the space between them fairly even. I tend to create my first stitch then deliberately stitch the next one at a 90 degree angle to the first and keep going changing the angle of each stitch. I stop to look back and if there is a bigger space I pop an extra stitch in. Once you get going there is a lovely rhythm to the stitching.
The red hat above isn’t strictly speaking seed stitch but I’m including it because they are individual tiny stitches. These stitches are all going in the same direction but in a brick pattern so they are more uniform than the stitches on the blue coat.
Recently I’ve been using running stitch to fill spaces, it’s another satisfying slow stitch that you can get into a rhythm with. I stab stitch my running stitch as I like to use a hoop but you could take it out the hoop and use a sewing running stitch (where you have a few stitches on your needle).
With the fox above I loved following the lines of the shape. It’s great for suggesting fur while keeping things simple. On the girl’s coat and skirt I just used a change of direction to make the distinction between her coat and skirt clearer. And, as you can see, I’m not really a perfectionist. The second line on her skirt disappears under her coat but I think it adds a bit of movement to the skirt.
These are sneak peeks of my Christmas friends design which will be ready as a pattern next week and hopefully as a kit very soon after, as soon as the supplies arrive.
I would love to know which stitches are your favourites for filling spaces. Are you happy to slowly fill a large shape with split stitch or do you like the speed of seed stitches or do you prefer something more elaborate?
It would also be useful to know if you prefer the running stitches marked on the design (especially for printed fabrics and kits) or is it better to find your own comfortable stitching rhythm.
I hope you have a lovely weekend with a little bit of cosy stitchy time.
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