Home Crochet baby clothesLockstitch / Backstitch - DIY instructions for sewing and embroidery

Lockstitch / Backstitch - DIY instructions for sewing and embroidery

If you would like to learn to sew or embroider by hand, I particularly recommend the lockstitch or backstitch. It is probably the best known and most frequently used stitch when sewing by hand. What is the "straight stitch" on the sewing machine is probably the lockstitch or backstitch in the hand sewing world.

Thanks to the seamless thread guidance, the fabrics are very closely connected and can only be separated with difficulty. The lockstitch is therefore particularly suitable for sewing non-elastic fabrics. Today I'll show you how you can use the lockstitch for your current sewing project, as well as for embroidery or decoration.

content

  • Material and preparation
    • Quilt pieces of fabric together
    • Lockstitch when embroidering

Material and preparation

For the lockstitch you only need:

Material, thread and needle
  • needle
  • Sewing thread or embroidery thread
  • material
  • scissors
Material, fabric parts

Quilt pieces of fabric together

This stitch is particularly suitable for non-elastic fabrics and sewing projects that are made with canvas, cotton weave or other firmer fabrics. Garments made with elastic fabric - for example jersey - should be sewn with an elastic stitch. This includes, for example, the triple straight stitch or the zigzag stitch of the sewing machine. Alternatively, you can sew with the overlock.

sewing projects

Since elastic fabrics move when worn, they also need a movable stitch. The lockstitch or straight stitch cannot withstand this load and can subsequently tear.

Especially for smaller sewing projects, the lockstitch or backstitch is perfect for sewing two pieces of fabric together. Sometimes the fabric also offers too little space to use the sewing machine and you have to sew smaller passages by hand.

Step 1: Put the two layers of fabric you want to quilt together, right to right.

both pieces of fabric lie on the right

Pin the edges with pins or clips.

Pin the edges with needles

TIP: For some solid fabrics, I recommend using clips instead of pins. Pins can leave holes in certain fabrics (e.g. oilcloth fabric) that remain. With jersey fabrics or other elastic fabrics, it is easier to work with pins.

Step 2: Thread the thread through your sewing needle and tie a knot at the end of the thread so that the seam cannot open later.

TIP: Alternatively, you can let a piece of the thread protrude from the seam and sew it later.

Step 3: Now pierce the top through the two layers of fabric.

Needle with threaded thread

We can now start with the stitching.

Start stitching

Step 4: After approx. 2 mm, make a stitch through the fabric downwards and another 2 mm later to the surface.

make a stitch with the needle

Then you prick back to the last puncture site and again leave a new gap of 2 mm.

stab back to the last puncture site

Your first steps look like the picture below.

Continue sewing the topstitch

Step 5: Repeat this stitch until you have reached the end of the two layers of fabric.

Repeat the stitch over and over

Your nutritional result is as follows.

Stitching-Nähresultat

Step 6: Sew the thread so that the seam does not come loose again. You thread it through the existing thread loops and then cut it off.

Sew the thread

Lockstitch when embroidering

For embroidery work, I recommend using a correct embroidery needle. This has a blunt tip and “finds” the holes more easily. If the sewing needle is very pointed, you often pierce fabric fibers that are not supposed to be pierced. The embroidery thread can then not be threaded through so easily and the embroidery work is subsequently not worked properly.

Lockstitch when embroidering, material

When embroidering, the lockstitch or backstitch is usually the first choice. All straight lines, borders or borders are embroidered with it. Through a varied choice of colors, whole pictures can also be embroidered.

Step 1: Thread the embroidery thread or thread through the embroidery needle and knot or sew the end.

Needle with threaded embroidery thread

Then stick to the surface from the back.

stab from the back to the surface

Step 2: Next, we prick the next hole in the nitrogen and the next but one hole.

Step 3: Now make a hole back to connect to the previous seam, again leaving a gap of one square.

more lockstitches

This is what your next sewing result looks like.

embroidered stitching

Repeat this step until the end of the seam.

Step 4: If you want to make corners with the lockstitch, prick back to the seam like a straight seam, but bring the needle back to the surface offset by a hole.

Subsequently, pierce the fabric again at the end of the seam.

stitched quilting corner

This way you can embroider corners in all directions.

Embroider corners in all directions

Step 5: Of course, a diagonal seam is also possible.

Sew diagonal with lockstitch

To do this, pierce the diagonally opposite hole and extend the stitching across the small squares of nitrogen.

Embroider diagonally

Your nutritional results are shown, as in our picture below.

embroidered lockstitch diagonal

Another advantage of this stitch is that the back also looks nice when sewing or embroidering and that the threads can be sewn easily.

Backs of the stitched lockstitch

I hope you have a perfect grip on the lockstitch from now on! Have fun sewing.

Sew the lockstitch by hand
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