The
Split Stitch is by far my favorite stitch. It is very versatile serving as outline and filler. It works well as detail or in large fill if the lines of stitching are worked very close to one another. I think this was the first stitch that my granma taught me all those years ago.
As always, start with your design on your fabric and the fabric in the frame of your choice.
Step 1Pull your thread up from the back of the fabric.
Step 2Make a stitch into the fabric (similar to start of back stitch at this point) and then bring the needle back out of the fabric.
(I've made these stitches much larger than I would ever use them in an embroidery piece so that you can see the stitch progress.)
Step 3Go back to the previous stitch placing the needle in the middle of it which is "splitting" the stitch. Unless you are working with only 2 strands of thread, don't worry about splitting the stitch perfectly even especially if you are using this stitch as a filler.
Step 4Passing the needle underneath the fabric, bring the needle back out on your design line.
Continue splitting and stitching and you are doing the SPLIT STITCH!
TroubleshootingMy stitches look sort of angular or chunky going around a curve.Whenever working around a curve, short your stitches. The tighter the curve, the shorter your stitches need to be to make it look smooth.
My fabric is puckering in between the stitches!Pay attention to how hard you are pulling your thread when the needle comes back through the fabric. You might be pulling it too tight. Also, if you are working with several strands of floss, you might need to use a larger eyed needle. If your needle "pops" as it is passing through the fabric, your needle's eye is too small which is making you jerk it to pull the thread through possibly causing the puckering.
