Stitch School: Fly Stitch

Happy New Year! And welcome to any new Stitch School readers. This is the sixteenth post in this series and you can find links to the others in the sidebar to the right if you've missed any of the others. So far we've covered all of the basic stitches and are now venturing into some of the lesser known or more complicated stitches.

Today we have fly stitch, which is very similar to feather stitch except that it's done as a single stitch rather than a series of connecting ones. It can be worked in a "V" shape or a "Y" shape by varying the length of the anchoring stitch at the final step. I'll also show you a variation called twisted fly stitch where the final anchoring stitch is twisted through the loop.

Begin by bringing your thread to the front.



Take the needle to the back about 1/4" to the right and parallel to where the thread emerges. Loop your thread under the tip of the needle and bring the needle up again midway between the two and about 1/4" below.



Hold the loop in place with your left thumb and pull the needle through until the looped thread lies snugly against the emerging thread.



Take your thread to the back to anchor the loop. A short stitch here will make a "V"; a longer one will make a "Y".



For the twisted variation, start the same way but keep the looped thread above the needle.



Gently begin to pull the thread through. Stop when the loop reaches slightly below the emerging thread.

Take the needle up and over, then through the loop and begin to pull the thread through.



Continue pulling gently until it lies flat on the fabric (the center will twist). Anchor the stitch as you did above, making it whatever length you like.



The completed stitch:



Not sure yet which stitch we'll do next week—it all depends on what kind of week I have ;)