How To Do A Fly Stitch – A Fun Stitch With Many Uses

The fly stitch, also known as an open loop stitch, is a very versatile stitch that creates a V or a Y shape. A single fly stitch can resemble the shape of a flying bird or insect, or the stitch can be worked rows or stacked on stop of one another to create open and closed fills, leaf shapes, and more.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to make a basic fly stitch as well as some variations and ideas for using it. If you’re more of a visual person, jump to the video tutorial.

How To Do A Fly Stitch

While you’re learning, I think it’s easiest to draw an upside-down triangle onto the fabric. This will make it really simple to get everything nice and even, and remind you where you should make each part of the stitch.

1. Bring the needle up through the fabric at the top left corner.
2. Place the needle back down through the fabric at the top right corner, then bring the tip of the needle out at the bottom point of the triangle and over the working thread.
3. Pull the thread through. Make a small stitch along the bottom point of the triangle to secure it.

Fly Stitch Variations

You’ll see in a moment why this is one of my favorite hand embroidery stitches to incorporate into an embroidery project. There are so many different effects and creative approaches you can take!

It’s easy to change the shape of the fly stitch by making the first two points of the stitch wider or narrower, or the bottom anchoring stitch shallower or deeper.

You can also lengthen the bottom part of the stitch so that the finished result looks more like a “Y”.

How To Make A Fly Stitch Leaf

The fly stitch can be used as a filling stitch. To make this stitch resemble leaves, you’ll want to draw a leaf shape and mark a vertical line down the center so you can keep your stitches nice and even.

Make a single stitch along the tip of the leaf, then make fly stitches all the way down the shape.

Stems and Leaves

You can also create simple stems or fern shapes. Make fly stitches with a lengthened holding stitch, stacking them on top of one another.

Plaited Fly Stitch Border

This variation of the fly stitch has more of a long tail at the base and slightly overlaps. It’s an interesting choice to use for borders, and it would be a fun one to interlace with other decorative stitches!

Open Fill

Make a row of fly stitches side by side. For the next row, make fly stitches upside-down, using the anchoring stitch from above to create the stitch.

Video Tutorial

Check out even more embroidery stitch tutorials.