Threading Up and the Running Stitch
Squares are cut, squares are checked. Now we sew two of them together, by hand. That starts with thread, a needle, and getting them to cooperate.
Thread first
Grab your thread. Use cotton, not polyester, for piecing — it's got a little give that plays nice with cotton fabric. Cut a length about as long as your arm, fingertip to shoulder. Longer than that and you fight knots and tangles the whole seam. Shorter and you rethread every two minutes, which wastes more time than it saves.
Don't pull the whole spool across the room and eyeball it. Measure it against your arm once, then you'll know what that length looks like and you can eyeball it after that.
Threading the needle
You're using a size 9 between, like we talked about back when we picked tools. Small needle, small eye. It's annoying to thread at first. Everybody's is.
A few things that actually help: - Cut your thread end at an angle, not straight across. Angled tips slide through an eye easier than blunt ones. - Wet the thread end, not the needle eye. Pinch it flat between your fingers first so it's not fraying out in six directions. - Hold the needle still and bring the thread to it, not the other way around. Your hand's steadier than you think when you're not also trying to aim a moving needle.
If you're sitting there for two full minutes fighting it, stop, re-cut the thread end, and try again. Don't just keep jabbing at it. That's wasted effort, and it won't matter once you've got a threaded needle in your hand.
The knot
Wrap the thread around your index finger twice, roll it off between your finger and thumb, and pull it down to the end. That gives you a small, neat knot. Don't tie an overhand knot with your fingers straight — it comes out huge and lumpy and it'll show through on the front of thin fabric.
The running stitch
This is the whole foundation of piecing by hand. Get it into your hands now and it pays off for the rest of this course.
- Line up your two squares, right sides together, edges matched.
- Come up from the back at your seam line, about a quarter inch in.
- Load three or four stitches onto the needle before you pull it through — dip down, up, down, up, little rocking motion — then pull the thread through all at once.
- Keep your stitches small and even. Not tiny. Even. Consistent beats small every time.
Your first few inches are going to look rough. Normal. Keep going. Don't rip it out yet. Get to the end of the seam, then look at the whole thing.
My opinion, stated plainly: perfect points and perfectly matched corners are overrated for a beginner. What matters right now is that your stitches are the same size as each other. Consistent seams are what make a block lie flat later. Nobody is grading your first runner on whether all four corners meet in a dead perfect point. That comes later, with practice — and honestly I'm still working on it myself.
A story about fabric that wasn't mine
A while back my friend Colin gave me a whole box of fabric that had belonged to his late aunt. I didn't love taking it — I don't love accepting stuff, never have — but he wanted it used, not sitting in a closet. So I took it home and went through every piece.
Some of it was cotton I could piece with no problem. Some of it I couldn't place — no selvage left, no info — so before I cut into anything special I ran a scrap test, same as we've talked about. Wet a corner, pressed it, watched what happened. That's the whole reason we test scraps before we commit: you don't want to find out a fabric behaves badly after you've already cut your squares and sewn a seam into it.
I made Colin a table runner out of that box for Christmas. Plain running stitch, seam by seam, same as what you're doing today. He teared up a little when he opened it, which made me real uncomfortable, so I told him it was no big deal. It kind of was. That's not something I say out loud.
Practicing today
Take two of your scrap squares — not your real project squares yet. Thread up, knot your thread, and sew a straight seam down one side using the running stitch. Go slow. Check your stitch length every inch or so instead of waiting until the end to look.
If it's uneven, fine — rip it and go again. Ripping out isn't a big deal, same as backing a trailer badly the first few times you try it. You won't get it right by being careful in your head. You get it right by doing it with your hands and looking at what happened.
Before next time: practice threading your needle a few times without even sewing anything, just so your hands get used to it. Small thing, but it'll save you real time once we start piecing actual blocks.