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StarHawk2003 Feb 27, 2008

  Now, I am actually re thinking my technique of backstitch!

My brother has sewn a little of my new bear, yes, you get a good peek at what the fabric is

Here is my brothers sewing, front and back.

You see, he sews it like a back stitch, but instead of going back into the old hole, he goes half way between.... The pics will explain more!

Here is mine.

I go into the old hole and carry on that way... Now, I have problems with my stitching showing, could this be why? I am making the hole bigger with double the amount of stitches in the same hole?

Is my brothers way right? 

How EMBARRASSING! I don't even know how to do back stitch!  :crackup: 

Richy~

Gijzette Feb 27, 2008

Richy,

Having done embroidery for many years before taking up the sewing of bears my backstitches look just like yours. There should not be any space between stitches on either side. By going back into the old hole on one side and then going half way in and then out on the other side. Here is the wiki on backstitching http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backstitch

There are two reasons I know of that cause stitches to show:
  1. You are stuffing the bear to much causing the fabric to pull away from the stitches.
  2. You are not using a thread that matches the backing fabric. From looking at your pictures it is hard to see if the thread matches or is just a close match.

I'm sure others who have been making bears for far longer than I have will chime in.

Hugs,

bearlyart Feb 28, 2008

There is a perfectly legitimate form of backstitch called "split backstitch", where you go through the previous stitch.  It can result in a very smooth line, and would be perfectly acceptable for bears as far as I know.  That having been said, he's not doing split backstitch correctly.  That top photo shows the error.  Those little bitty far apart stitches need to be much closer together, and that is where each one pierces the center of the one next to it.

http://www.fruncesybordados.com.mx/Spli … stitch.htm

Cheers,
Kelly

matilda Feb 29, 2008

The wikipedia diagram in the link Gijzette gave is the way I do my back stitch. Two steps forward one step back.
I don't reuse holes. Only if I was doing embroidery.
I use a big eye size 10 embroidery needle and super fine/strong thread  from Sassys.
Wendy

rkr4cds Feb 29, 2008

LOL Wendy, with my big fat arthritic-knarled finger joints, I sewed all of my fabric bears with #8 embroidery and the noses w/#10. LOVE that nice long eye for easy threading.
Even with this size, it's still EZ to get 20 sts per inch, right along the pre-sealed edges.

B

bearhug07 Mar 9, 2008

I was taught back stitch at school where you reuse the old hole and start the new stitch from the top of the old. Starting half way down the previous stitch I know as embroidery stem stitch. I started using stem stitch some years ago when I found some impatient students were making there back stitches to big and this made them cut there sizes down. This made a tighter, neater seam. But I also found that if the seam is sewn with a thread that is thick that the stitching will show much easier than a finer thread.

Both neat tight stitches and the right gauge thread are needed for invisible stitching.