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Life

Sewing for Yourself: Whip Stitch

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Gettysburg chapter.

Alright, now that you have the materials we can start sewing!

The first stitch to learn is the whip stitch. This is a seriously useful stitch. It can be used to bind two pieces of fabric together at the edges. For an example of how this would look, take a peek inside your jeans or shirt or really any piece of clothing you own. See that line of fabric inside the seams? It’s usually folded to the side, but it you straighten it out you’ll see that it’s where the two sides of the fabric meet. This is basically what we’ll be doing.

So, first off, bring the two wrong sides of your fabric together. This means the sides of the fabric that will be on the inside of whatever you’re making. This is also the point in which pins become useful.

Image via Silverstah

Go ahead and pin that fabric together.

Thread your needle and make your knot. Then pierce both fabrics either at the begging of where you want them to be connected (also called the seam) or a little before the hole you’re sewing up.

Bring your needle up, over the top of what will be your seam. On the opposite side of the fabric as where you thread is currently exiting the fabric, bring your needle a little in front of that point and piece both pieces of fabric.

Image via Quilting Oneness

Continue this along what you want to be your seam. For a stronger seam, place the stitches closer together.

At the end of the seam, create a knot by grabbing a few strands of the one side of the fabric.

Pull the thread through until you have a small loop.

Bring your needle and thread through this loop one or two times.

And pull it tight. Taking a small lesson from crocheting, I, personally, like to hide a bit of the leftover tail within the fabric to help prevent the unraveling of the knot we just made.

You’re now ready to cut your thread, and you’re done!

Join us next time for the invisible stitch!

Zoe Philippou

Gettysburg '20

(she/her) From Arizona, Zoe is officially a Psychology and Anthropology double major, a German minor, and an unofficial a Theater inhabitor. She loves all thing having to do with culture or really just people in general. She's also a huge nerd who loves crafts.