Stitching - Hand & Machine     Written by Design Team Member - Shirley Fyfe

Stitching on your scrapbooking & paper craft projects can add not only texture, dimension and interest BUT also a wonderful homemade feel.

For those who are familiar with my scrapbooking style, you will know only too well that I have a passion for handstitching and using embroidery techniques on my pages.

Some of the basic embroidery stitches I use include –

• Straight or Back Stitch
• Zig Zag Stitch
• Cross Stitch
• French Knots
• Lazy Daisy Stitch
• Satin Stitch

A great way to learn any number of embroidery stitches is of course to invest in an embroidery technique book or simply do a search on the web – here’s a great one with absolutely heaps of stitches that have been demonstrated and described in detail http://inaminuteago.com/stitchindex.html You will be quite surprised with how effective these can look on cardstock/paper and when combined together, they can be a very inexpensive accent to create too!

It is important to be light handed when hand sewing to avoid tearing your cardstock or paper. I always pin prick my holes first using a pin & a mouse mat; use a piece of tape to fasten the end of the thread to the reverse of the project and then use a fine needle with a largish eye or a beading needle to actually do the sewing (if you use a needle that is too coarse you will find that you will make the holes bigger in size as you sew – probably not the look you will be after – if you are unsure, just do a sample stitch piece first!)

There are a range of materials that you can try sewing with too –

• Embroidery Thread ie. DMC, Anchor
• Cotton Thread
• Silk Thread
• Wool / Fibres
• Ribbon
• Jute / String

Why not try stitching through ribbons, in buttons, add beads, on journaling blocks, around titles and even on other embellishments you are using on your page. The possibilities really are endless! You will see that throughout this article I am including a number of photos of stitching I have done – I hope that they inspire you to pick up a needle and thread!

There is of course another way to do stitching on your pages and that is by machine stitching. As I tend to scrap of a night when everyone is asleep, this option is out of the question for me (hence me doing the hand stitching) BUT it is indeed a wonderful way to achieve that homemade look in a fraction of the time!

I thought I might share some tips that I have found useful on the odd occasions that I have done machine stitching on various projects and that I have found useful.

1. Make sure your bobbin is full of cotton. Believe me; if you have to re-start sewing part way through, you are going to find it difficult to match up where the machine has poked holes in your cardstock or paper.
2. You will need to use a medium length stitch. If your stitch length is too small you risk tearing and damaging your cardstock or paper. Before you start on your project, test out the stitch length on a scrap piece of cardstock or paper to ensure you are happy with the results.
3. You won’t need to do any back stitching at the start or end of your sewing (unless you desire the look) because the sections of your page won’t move around as would a fabric item.
4. One final tip too - make sure you change to a new needle if you are going to return to sewing fabric – sewing through paper will blunt your needle.

SEW (he he he) . . . have I inspired you? Stitching really is one element that adds some real impact to a scrapbooking page! I’d love to see your results in the gallery too – please make sure you share with us all!

Enjoy!