DIY | Sewing 101: 3 basic stitches

Even if you are lucky enough to leave the house with your emergency sewing kit, it’s good to know a few simple stitches, or else you could end up ruining a hem or worse.

It does take a bit of practice, but everyone should be able to hem his or her own pants or repair a simple loose thread on a shirt.

To begin, make sure you have the right color thread, a good darning needle and a few straight pins.

How-To: Make an easy, on-the-go sewing kit.

3 stitches to know:

1. Running Stitch

This is the most basic stitch next to a basting stitch, and the one that comes to mind for most when thinking of hand-sewing. You are basically just pushing the needle and thread in and out of the fabric in a straight line.

The purpose of this stitch is to aid in keeping two pieces of fabric together. It can be used as a temporary hemstitch, but make sure you have the same shade of thread as your garment.

2. Back stitch

This is a stronger version of the running stitch, and a little more work-intensive. The big difference between this and the running stitch is that you'll turn around and go backwards for one stitch.

The visual is probably more helpful than the explanation, but it's basically a "back-tracking" type of stitch to give a seam a much stronger bind. Once you’ve made several stitches, you will see the threads overlap on the underside of the fabric.

3. Hem Stitch

This stitch that helps you create an unnoticeable stitch for hemming garments. Press the needle through your two layers and back at a slant. Repeat this same stitch until you reach the end of what you are hemming.

Pro-Tip: You might be wondering, “What do I do when I get to the end to finish off the stitch?” Whatever type of stitch you are using, you'll need to secure it at the end to keep your sewing from becoming loose and coming undone.

Take a little backstitch and make a loop over the needle. Pull the thread through the loop you’ve created to make a knot next to the fabric. Repeat the process to make the stitch more secure.

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Twinkle VanWinkle was born in a small town in Mississippi. A life-long lover of music, media and food, she grew up following those three things along her path. She has almost 20 years of professional cooking under her apron strings, feeding thousands of friends, family and other folks while working in restaurants and bakeries in Oxford, Miss. She baked 300 apple pies for the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and appeared on “The Best Of...” in the same year. Along with producing dynamic entertainment content for LIN Media, she is a mother, musician and social media fanatic.

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