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Seed stitch is one of my favorite fill stitches. It’s really easy to do and it makes a great texture – perfect for grassy fields and shaggy critters.

But there’s a trick to getting all the texture – and that trick is in choosing the right colors – and choosing enough of them.

Everyone who’s ever read a fairy tale – or listened to Schoolhouse Rock – already knows the secret. . .

Three is a magic number.

It’s that simple!

Here I’m going to show you some seed stitch-in-progress so you can see what adding the additional colors does.

I always start with the darkest shade and lay down a nice, dense bunch of stitching. The background fabric isn’t completely covered – but it’s pretty close.

It’s not bad. Kind of shaggy and pebbly looking – fun.

But look what happens when I layer a lighter shade over the dark one.

Oooh! Depth!

Note that the stitching with the second layer of color isn’t nearly as dense. Lots of the dark is showing through, and the background fabric is now almost completely covered.

I’m always kind of tempted to stop with the second color – because at this point I’m always really happy with how it’s looking. But I know from experience that THREE is the magic number. Not two.

Wow! Look at those highlights!

I shot this photo after HURRIER had gotten its third color, but before BEHINDER got it so you could really see the difference in them.

If you look closely you can see that there are actually very few of the lightest stitches, but they make the whole thing look so much fuller and more textured.

You can see more seed stitching in grass in the corner of the free Feast embroidery pattern.

And here’s a handy dandy link list. . .

• The hurrier I go, the behinder I get – embroidery pattern
• The Misfits embroidery pattern (that’s where you’ll find that purple monster)
• Feast – a free embroidery pattern

Happy stitching!

Here are all my lessons for fill stitches (besides satin stitch).

• satin stitch
• satin stitching points
• seed stitch
• long & short stitch
• split stitch used as a fill stitch
• Turkey work
• using colored pencils or crayons with embroidery

Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons for all the other stitches.