Tutorial - stitching

Hello lovely people,

I have had quite a few comments/queries about my stitching so I thought I would share a little photo tutorial on how I do it.
If you're not interested please feel free to skip on down to my Totally Gorjuss DT post below; I will not be remotely offended!

First off, I do the stitching by hand ... ok, maybe that's obvious because if I used a machine then a tutorial would be rather pointless!

Here's what I use: a cutting mat, a Tonic Studios Tim Holtz pokey tool (the rubber on this started flaking almost immediately but it works fine), a fine needle and some DMC white embroidery thread;

I start in one corner and poke holes about half way along, the spacing is by eye;

Then I start from the other corner and poke holes towards the ones I have already done.  I stop when the gap looks the right size for 3 more holes;

I add the hole in the middle of the gap;

Finally I fill in the 2 remaining holes either side of the last hole I made.  This seems to mostly avoid having the wrong size gap at the end, although I have been known to get it wrong!

For the stitching part I do backstitch with a fine needle;

I tape the ends down on the back although I realise now that my tape is almost invisible!

I also cheat!  If I know I am going to be covering some of the lower layers up then I don't bother to stitch the non-visible parts :-)

Since I do a lot of this just by 'what looks right' I appreciate it may be a bit daunting for some, but I like doing it by hand and trust me, you get a lot better with practice.  Besides, I reckon it looks better if it isn't too perfect!

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial and happy stitching :-)  Oh, and if you want to see the finished article it's below this post.

Thanks for visiting,

Hugs,
Kat xx