This morning, I’d like to share a little embroidery stitch tip with you.

If you like to embroider with your fabric taut* in a hoop, you may have found that some of the diagrams in stitch dictionaries are hard to imitate.

This is because most diagrams in stitch dictionaries illustrate the stitch in the most space-efficient way by showing it “sewn” rather than “stabbed” – by showing the needle mostly on the surface of the fabric, scooping up bits of the fabric to make the stitch, rather than being taken all the way to the back of the fabric.

If you’re not sure what the differences between stabbing and sewing a stitch are, you might want to read this article on stabbing vs sewing that I wrote a while ago.

“Sewing” embroidery stitches when your fabric is drum-taut* in a hoop or frame can be awkward and difficult. Sometimes, it’s just darned hard to scoop the fabric up!

And often, with some stitches, a sewn stitch looks significantly different from a stabbed stitch, due to the way the different methods cause the stitch to interact with the fabric.