The Seed Stitch is Simple & Sweet
Also known as the rice stitch or straight stitch, the seed stitch is simply a small stitch that goes from point A to B and looks like rice.
They can be used alone, or grouped either in an organized fashion or randomly, and you can mix up the grouping to your heart's content.
There are also no rules as to the direction the seed stitch lays, and you can space them as close or as far as you'd like. You don't even have to make their lengths the same. There truly is a lot of freedom when it comes to how you use it.
They're great little stitches for creating cute accents, textures, and open-fills. Open-fill means that when you fill in a shape you can still see the fabric behind it, just like the image above. This is also sometimes referred to as a powdering technique.
If you've had a chance to look over some of my other embroidery stitch tutorials you'll notice that they often start off with a seed stitch.
How to Use the Seed Stitch
- While the seed stitch can be a stand alone stitch, there’s actually a bit of room to use it creatively.
- They can be grouped in an orderly fashion or they can be organic.
- Two seed stitches can be placed next to each other to make it more bold. They can both be the same color or not.
- Use groups of seed stitches to create an open-fill with an hombre effect.
- Use different number of strands to create seed stitches and mix them up in an open-fill.
- Add them under closed-fill stitches (fills where you don’t see the fabric below) to add volume to the stitch above.
- Use the seed stitch to create things like flower parts, a sparkle, small teeth, accents, and even legs on a small animal.
The seed stitch might be small, but it’s still a pretty versatile stitch. This was a pretty quick tutorial, and probably will be the quickest one I make! Hop on over to my stitch library if you'd like to learn more stitches!
❤️ Happy stitching!