How do I work a blanket stitch?

Blanket stitch is the traditional finish on the edge of a wool blanket, on felt, and on appliqué — anywhere you want a raw edge held down and made a feature rather than hidden. It is not difficult once you see that each stitch is a loop caught by the next, but the description in most books skips the one step that makes it work: the thread has to pass under the needle before you pull it through.

What you'll need

• An embroidery or crewel needle with an eye large enough for the thread
• Thicker thread than ordinary sewing thread — perle cotton, embroidery floss or wool
• Small sharp scissors
• A ruler or a piece of card as a spacing gauge

Step by step

1. Choose a thread heavier than sewing thread.Blanket stitch is meant to be seen. Perle cotton, all six strands of embroidery floss, or a fine wool. Ordinary sewing thread disappears into the fabric and the stitch loses its point.
2. Decide the depth and the spacing.Depth is how far in from the edge the vertical bars go; spacing is how far apart they are. Deep and widely spaced suits a thick blanket edge; shallow and close suits appliqué on a light fabric. Keeping both consistent is what makes it look deliberate.
3. Anchor the thread without a knot showing.Come up from the back a couple of stitch-widths ahead of where you want to start, work backwards to the start point, then reverse — or simply take two small stitches on the back within what the stitching will cover.
4. Bring the needle up at your chosen depth from the edge.From the back to the front, at the first vertical bar position. Pull all the thread through, and let the thread lie across the edge to the front for now.
5. Take the needle down one stitch along, at the same depth.Insert it from the front to the back, then bring the point back up at the edge directly below that entry point — or in a single motion, straight down and out at the edge.
6. Pass the working thread under the needle point before pulling.This is the step everything depends on. The loop of thread coming from the previous stitch must lie under the needle so that when you pull, it is caught along the raw edge.
7. Pull through until the loop sits on the edge.Not tight enough to roll the edge over, not loose enough to hang. The horizontal bar of the loop should lie exactly along the raw edge. Tension consistency is what separates good blanket stitch from bad.
8. Repeat, keeping the depth and spacing even.A strip of card cut to your chosen spacing, moved along as a gauge, keeps beginners honest for the first few centimetres until the rhythm comes.
9. Turn a corner with a fan.At an outside corner, work three stitches into the same hole at the corner point, fanning them out at different angles so the horizontal bar turns the corner continuously with no gap. At an inside corner, work them into the corner point from the other direction.
10. Finish by looping into the first stitch.At the end of a closed edge, pass the needle under the first stitch's vertical bar before taking the thread to the back, so the last loop closes onto the first. Then fasten off with two small stitches under the worked edge.

Tips

• Work left to right with the raw edge towards you. That is the conventional direction and every description of the stitch assumes it.
• On felt and on fleece the raw edge does not fray, so blanket stitch there is purely decorative and the depth can be shallow. On a woven fabric that frays, take the depth deeper so the stitch bites into sound cloth.
• For appliqué, work the stitch so the vertical bars sit on the appliqué piece and the horizontal bars run along its edge, catching the background fabric.
• If the stitch keeps rolling the edge over, the tension is too tight. Let the loop sit rather than pulling it.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting to pass the thread under the needle — Without that, you have made a straight stitch, not a blanket stitch — there is no loop along the edge and nothing binding it. It is the whole mechanism.
• Uneven depth and spacing — The stitch is entirely regular by nature, so irregularity reads immediately as a mistake rather than as handmade character. Use a card gauge until the rhythm is automatic.
• Using ordinary sewing thread — It is too fine to show and too weak to bind an edge. The stitch is designed around a thread with body.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask