15 Easy Stitching Techniques

Hi everyone, Ellen here on for the Blog boss, sure hope I do her justice :)

I found a great article by Ali Edwards in Creating Keepsakes that suggested more ways to incorporate sewing on your layouts or cards:

1. Stitch a simple line on just one side of an accent
2. Stitch a basic shape(you might want to use removable adhesive to help keep these in place)
3. Stitch several embellishments in a row. butterflys come to mind for me!
4. Vary stitch legth and width of your stitches
5. Try stitching stamps or rub-ons. if you don't have a sewing machine you could invest in a set of stamps to help you or even rub ons are great to achieve this look.
6. Stitch a boarder around your page, it doens't have to be straight either, sometimes the messy look is more fitting for the lo or card.
7. Stitch journaling lines. stitching line straight or curvy is a simple way to desingate a place on your project to tell the story.
8. Stitch wavy lines. this will give a more organic look to your project. repeating these organic lines somewhere else on your page will give extra visal interest.
9. Stitch grid lines. adhere your photos first then run the lo threw the sewing machine, you could stitch the grid first then add content. (Zig Zag stitch would be great for this!
10. Stitch a quilted look. Cut several of your favourite scraps into squares or rectangles and place them together to form a quilted area on your lo. use each square as a home for an embellishment.
11. Stitch an accent shape. you can also do this by had with many of the templates that are available now.
12. Hand stitch words. you can do this free hand or if you love a font you could stitch around it and this will give your lo different look.
13. Stitch a photo frame. this will give your pictures a subtle look.
14. Attach small accents with embroidery floss. something as simple as cross stitch x's will give that homemade look to a lo! and you can match your floss with the colours of your lo!
15. Attach large accents with embroidery floss. you can stitch around a big accent or if you prefer in the accent, as it is large you should stay with a large stitch.

Some stitching tips:
Start basic.
Select a few basic colours of thread and embroidery floss. Choose a simple palette that will work on the majority of your projects.
You don't need a new machine to play with sewing in on your pages.
You might have one sitting around home that might need to be pulled out for some fun!

Find a home for your sewing machine that's outside your closet! this way you will think to use it!

Read your manual.
You will definitely benefit from taking time to learn the capabilities of your sewing machine. You should also be familiar with how to keep your machine clean. You will also have to have different needles for fabric and paper. the paper will dull your sewing needle on the machine.

Don't feel your stitching has to be functional.
You don't have to always stitch one thing to another, stitches look great a decoration~

So there you have it. Hope you will be inspired to pull out an old machine and stitch on your lo or cards!