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The Simple But Mighty Running Embroidery Stitch

In this tutorial, I’ll teach you how to do the running stitch for hand embroidery. This stitch is probably one you’ve come across before, especially if you’ve ever done any quilting or hand sewing. It’s the same technique, but instead of assembling clothes or quilts with it, we’ll be learning about how you can use it to decorate the fabric!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase an item.

embroidery supplies sitting on top of white fabric that has a variety of running embroidery stitches on it

Running Embroidery Stitch

I’ll be the first one to admit that I didn’t really see the use of the running stitch for embroidery for a long, long time. To me, this stitch seemed too plain and it was also somewhat frustrating. (It’s surprisingly hard to get the stitches straight and even!) So for years, I steered clear of it. I technically knew how to do it, but I saw it as more of a sewing technique and less of a stitch I wanted to have in my wheelhouse to make art with.

It wasn’t until I was given a copy of Kantha: Sustainable Textiles and Mindful Making by Ekta Kaul and learned more about Sashiko embroidery that I saw how versatile and beautiful this stitch really is. I was just thinking about it all wrong!

I’ll share with you a few ideas and helpful tips to get you excited to use the running stitch in your next project. And if you want to see even more amazing ways you can utilize this stitch, I highly recommend you check out Ekta’s book.

Getting Started

It’s really important to mark the fabric before you get started. This will set you up for success and you’ll be able to make smoother, neater lines of stitches.

You may be tempted to mark a dashed line along the fabric, but I’d recommend drawing a solid line instead with a marker or pen that you can easily remove. In my experience, hand drawing a dashed line can make the lines a bit crooked and uneven.

An easy way to get a super straight line without using a ruler is to follow the grainlines of the fabric.

Running Stitch (Sewing Method)

If you’re a hand sewer, you probably learned the running stitch using the sewing method. This is a totally legitimate way to work the running stitch so I figured I’d include it first.

running stitch - sewing method

This technique involves grabbing the fabric with the needle along the working line, which keeps the needle on the surface of the fabric instead of going up and down with your needle from front to back.

It’s a totally fine way to make this stitch but if you’re like me and prefer to have a lot of tension on your fabric (using an embroidery hoop or a slate frame), the taught fabric makes it harder to stitch this way.

Running Stitch (Stabbing Method)

That leads me into the way I prefer to embroider the running stitch.

running stitch step 1

Come up through the fabric with needle and thread. Skip ahead one stitch length and place your needle back down through the fabric.

running stitch step 2

Pull the working thread through and skip ahead along the line one stitch length and come up through the fabric.

running stitch step 3

Skip ahead a stitch length and make another stitch.

running stitch step 4

Repeat the desired length.

Keeping The Stitches Even

a piece of green tape on a thumbnail to help keep the stitches even

Having trouble getting the stitches even? There is this helpful tool or you could try cutting a small piece of tape and placing it on your thumbnail. This makes it easy to use as a reference for how long each stitch should be as you work along the line.

Running Stitch Variations

running stitches in varying lengths

While this stitch looks great when the stitches are nice and even, playing around with different stitch lengths can add a more interesting effect.

Try alternating long and short stitches, or staggering two lines of stitches side by side.

running stitch along a curved lines

To stitch along curved lines, it’s helpful to shorten the stitch length. This will allow you to keep the stitches laying nicely along the curved line, making the overall appearance of the line a lot smoother and more defined.

I hope you found this tutorial easy to follow, and I hope that it convinced you to play around with this simple but mighty little stitch!

If you’re interested in learning more, check out this post for even more outline stitches.

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