I think seeding stitch can be a bit overlooked. I certainly didn’t pay it much attention for quite a while. But actually, it’s a pretty useful filling stitch. Especially when you want to fill an area quickly.
In its simplest form, seeding stitch is a scattering of small straight stitches that fill an area. However, there are plenty of other possibilities, you can let your imagination run wild!
How to stitch
Since your stitching area won’t be fully covered with stitches, you’ll want to start and finish your thread in a nearby area that will be covered.
Work your first stitch as a small straight stitch. The exact size will depend on the thread you are using and the effect you want. With crewel wool or 2/3 strands of stranded cotton, I’ll typically work stitches that are 2-3mm.
Work your second stitch nearby, keeping your stitch size the same but changing the angle of your stitch.
Keep working stitches that are the same size while continually varying the angle of your stitches. To get the best effect, you want the angle and placement of your stitches to appear random.
This can be easier said than done! In practice, you don’t need to have absolutely every stitch at a different angle. So long as you don’t start seeing a regular pattern you should be fine.
Seeding stitch variations
While seeding stitch is commonly stitched with short straight stitches, you don’t have to restrict yourself to this.
You could use pretty much any individual stitch or shape you fancy. How about French knots, lazy daisy stitch or little triangles…
Another variation that I learnt during my Bacton altar cloth motif class is to work a “double seeding” stitch. This is simply working over your stitches a second time to give them more depth.
While seeding stitch is great for covering a large area in a flat colour, you’re by no means limited to that. You can also create shading with seeding stitch by changing colours or changing the density of your stitches.
You could even combine different colours and stitch densities for more dramatic effects.
I hope this tutorial has inspired you to give seeding stitch a go and to experiment with some different effects. Check out my other tutorials here and let me know if there’s anything in particular you’d like me to cover!