If you’ve ever knitted you’ll know that there are really only two stitches, knit and purl, and that all the stitch patterns used in knitting are just combinations of knit and purl.
I see the straight stitch as the embroidery version of knit and purl. It’s just a single stitch of any length and in any direction. So it really is the building block for the majority of other embroidery stitches - running stitch, backstitch, seed stitch, satin stitch and cross stitch to name just a few.
Creating a straight stitch is easy, bring the needle up through the fabric at the point the stitch will start
Push it back through the fabric at the point at which you want the stitch to end.
The image in the header shows one way of using straight stitches - to create a flower. But a fun way to use straight stitches is when stitching on paper. This is a card I made for my niece’s birthday using long straight stitches at random angles and overlapping.
Want to try this stitch? It’s one I suggest using in my floral sampler kit.
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