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.
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- Material and preparation
- Quilt pieces of fabric together
- Lockstitch when embroidering
Material and preparation
For the lockstitch you only need:
- needle
- Sewing thread or embroidery thread
- material
- scissors
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.
Pin the edges with pins or clips.
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.
We can now start with the stitching.
Step 4: After approx. 2 mm, make a stitch through the fabric downwards and another 2 mm later to the surface.
Then you prick back to the last puncture site and again leave a new gap of 2 mm.
Your first steps look like the picture below.
Step 5: Repeat this stitch until you have reached the end of the two layers of fabric.
Your nutritional result is as follows.
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.
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.
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.
Then stick to the surface from the back.
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.
This is what your next sewing result looks like.
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.
This way you can embroider corners in all directions.
Step 5: Of course, a diagonal seam is also possible.
To do this, pierce the diagonally opposite hole and extend the stitching across the small squares of nitrogen.
Your nutritional results are shown, as in our picture below.
Another advantage of this stitch is that the back also looks nice when sewing or embroidering and that the threads can be sewn easily.
I hope you have a perfect grip on the lockstitch from now on! Have fun sewing.