So – one of the very first videos I made showed how to tie a knot in your thread, for sewing or embroidery. A reader recently asked me how I knot off the thread on the back of my embroidery. Good question! Here’s the answer.
That’s the back side of my Firefly Tree embroidery pattern you see me working on. 🙂
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Here are all my posts about knots.
- How to Tie a Knot
- How to Tie Off Thread on the Back of Your Embroidery
- How to Embroider with No Knots
Before you knot that thread you need to know how much to use, so here’s one more post that doesn’t really have a better place to live. 🙂 How Many Strands of Thread Should I Use?
Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.
Move on to the lessons for the four most basic embroidery stitches.
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I’ve been doing this but also doubling my first and last stitches before I weave the floss. I’m glad to know this might not be necessary.
It was also helpful to see the back of your work. You hear a lot about making the back of your work look “as nice as the front,” but there’s not much about exactly what that entails. I never know how far of a jump I can make across the back of the fabric. What’s your opinion on the maximum distance you can “jump” before you should tie off and restart?
Jenny – I don’t buy into the whole “back of your work should look as nice as the front” thing. Why? I’m all about making the extra effort when it makes a difference. I bind all my quilts by hand. I use ladder stitch to close my softies.But I don’t worry even a tiny bit about what the back of my embroidery looks like. 🙂
For me it’s all about function. Carrying a thread even a short distance behind lightweight and light-colored fabric will show – so I don’t do it. Carrying a thread more than an inch or so inside a garment or on the back of a tea towel is easy to snag fingers and toes on – so I don’t do that either. But carrying a thread behind a heavyweight or dark fabric that is going to be framed in a hoop and hung on the wall? No problem. 🙂
My opinion, of course. At heart, I’m really a very lazy stitcher. I take the time on the things that matter to me and I don’t worry too much about the “right” way to do things. It keeps my heart happy and my blood pressure low.
thanks. I wish I’d asked earlier. I’m making an embroidered quilt in which the embroidery is on white quilting cotton, each block a different color (a gift for a teacher). I have indeed carried the thread short distances, and sometimes with dark thread! No more than 1/2″ I’d say, but still. Maybe it won’t be too bad. Perhaps the beauty of the hand binding will distract . . . .
That short a carry probably won’t be noticable at all – especially on a quilt. It’s most noticeable on a softie, where the stuffing pushes the threads really firmly against the fabric. Things are looser on a quilt and that helps a lot. Have fun with it!
How do you tie off thread on the back when you just have one small stitch, e.g., a nose? There’s nothing on the back to work the thread under.
Thanks, Judy
I don’t run into that very often, but when I do I have two options. If there’s other stitching around that tiny bit I’ll do that first to give me some anchor threads to tie under. If it’s just a lone stitch with nothing else nearby I’ll run my thread a couple of times between the strands of thread under the knot. I always feel like it’s not quite as secure, but I’ve never had one come loose so I guess it’s ok. 🙂
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