The long and short stitch is a great option to fill in large areas, or add shading to a shape. You will frequently see this stitch used in needle painting.
How to Do a Long and Short Stitch:
- Start your first row with alternating long and short satin stitches. Feel free to make them any length you would like!
- Your second row will be the same length. For a blended look, make the second row of stitches slightly overlap into your previous row. For a textured look, have your stitches meet right at your previous row. This is also known as a brick stitch. In the last picture, you can see the brick stitch, and the more blended long and short stitch.
- Make all following rows the same length. You can change floss colors as often as you want.
- In the final row, you may need to change the length of your stitches to fit in the remaining space of your shape.
Tips:
- The number of threads you use will change the appearance of your design. The smaller the amount of threads you use, the more blended your stitches will be. Whereas, the more threads you use, the more textured your stitches will be.
- Needle painting is a popular embroidery technique that uses the long and short stitch. The goal is to create a very realistic design. For needle painting, you will use a lot of colors for shading, and only 1 or 2 threads of floss.
- Just like the satin stitch, you can choose to outline your shape with a back stitch, split stitch, or stem stitch. Outlining your shape will give it a more defined edge.
- When working in large areas, use the long and short stitch as an alternative to the satin stitch. You will reduce the odds of snagging threads, yet keep a smooth finish.
