Stitch Tip #12: What Knot to Do

Don’t be like me.

I have a bad habit of knotting the end of the thread before stitching. See how that light blue thread has caught on the yellow knot? This is bad!

I hadn’t realized that there was a giant loop of thread hanging off the back of the design until much later. That loop means the top threads can be pulled to the front of the design. I don’t pretend to be the neatest stitcher in the world and know that this will be covered up by a backing fabric. But my bad habit is shoddy workmanship.

This is how to best begin your threads. Take a few back stitches into the wrong side of the fabric. In this case I’m using felt so you won’t see the stitches on the right side of the fabric.

To end a thread, stitch into the previous stitches on the back of the design. Then clip both the ending thread and the tail of thread at the beginning of your stitches close to the fabric.

This is one of many stitch tips from Playful Free-Form Embroidery. Tips all learned the hard way!