The stem stitch is a decorative outline stitch in embroidery that forms a rope like line. It’s a great beginner friendly embroidery stitch to learn, and it’s really nice to use for embroidering letters or borders. Here’s a step by step guide on how to embroider a stem stitch.
If you find this tutorial helpful, check out even more embroidery stitch tutorials.
Time needed: 5 minutes.
How To Embroider a Stem Stitch
- Step 1
Come up through the back of the fabric and then take your needle back down through the fabric, but come up halfway between the initial stitch and the 2nd hole your needle made.
I like to think of this a grabbing a little piece of fabric with my needle.
Pull the thread through.
- Step 2
Repeat this until you’ve reached the desired length. Make sure to keep the thread to one side the entire time. Otherwise the stitches will not twist in a uniform way.
- Step 3
Here is the completed stem stitch
Want to learn even more embroidery stitches?
This workbook is NOT your usual stitch encyclopedia. Most embroidery books don’t actually show you how you can use each embroidery stitch and they also don’t come with many tips. This workbook is packed full of helpful information to make you a better, more confident stitcher.
It comes with:
- embroidery stitch tutorials
- helpful tips for each stitch that will maximize your learning and improve the way your embroidery looks
- fun, modern embroidery patterns you can use to learn the stitches with ease