Stitching

One Stitch at a Time

A stitch is the smallest unit of sewing: one passage of thread through material, completed and ready to be repeated. Stitching is what happens when stitches are organised. Organised in a straight line at the fabric's edge, they make a seam; organised along a fold, a hem; organised over an edge, a finish that stops fraying; organised on the surface in counted or free patterns, embroidery. The language of the craft therefore names stitches the way building names joints, because each stitch is a small structure with its own strength, flexibility, appearance and cost in thread and time.

The structural family divides by how the thread is secured. The lock stitch passes two threads through the same hole and locks them inside the fabric, so every stitch stands alone and the stitching cannot run back. The chain stitch loops one thread through itself, stitch depending on stitch, fast to work by hand or machine and used both decoratively and constructively, but able to unravel from a loose end. The overlock stitch wraps thread around an edge while seaming it. Hand stitching adds the running stitch, in and out in a dashed line, and backstitch, its reinforced relative, as the foundation pair from which hand seams, basting and darning all develop.

Stitching as Decoration

Embroidery stitching organises the same units for appearance. Cross-stitch builds pictures from counted X-shaped units on evenweave fabric. Satin stitch lays flat stitches side by side until the ground fabric disappears under a smooth surface. Decorative chain stitch lines, stem stitch outlines and the counted canvas stitches of needlepoint, brick, Parisian and tent stitch among them, each convert repetition into texture. The tacking or basting stitch shows stitching's temporary mode: long running stitches that hold work only until permanent stitching replaces them, then are removed entirely.

Judging stitching is judging regularity and fitness. Even length, even tension and an even line mark good work in every tradition; the right stitch for the fabric and the job marks experienced work. Stitching that is too tight puckers, too loose grins open, and stitching in the wrong structure fails in its characteristic way, chain stitching unzipping, lock stitching holding until the fabric itself tears. The individual definitions in this section, from the sewing needle that forms the stitch to the tack stitch that temporarily stands in for it, describe each unit in detail. Stitching is the general word that holds them together: the making of stitches, and the visible record, in thread, of how a textile article was joined and decorated.

Stitching quality is judged in use as much as in appearance. A seam in a working garment is flexed, washed, pressed and strained thousands of times, and stitching survives that life when its structure suits the fabric: thread neither so fine that it cuts the cloth nor so coarse that it grins through it, stitches neither so short that they perforate the material into a tear line nor so long that the seam gapes between them. Decorative stitching is judged by the same discipline applied to appearance, because a wandering line or uneven tension that would be hidden inside a seam is the whole visible effect in embroidery. In both cases stitching rewards the unglamorous virtues of sampling first, testing thread and stitch length on an offcut of the actual fabric, and keeping the rhythm of the work even from the first stitch to the last.