Some time ago I learned from some of my friends that several of my hand sewing & embroidery steps are rather new and unknown to others. Even if I consider this techniques very basic and elemental. I always try to keep that in mind while I am working at my projects.

This is the main reason why I also try to document my “very basic” steps by taking as many useful photos as possible for you.

Recently I took some detail photos of a very basic hand sewing technique I use very often. This detail photos will show you how to start a new thread and how to hide it in a seam.

This posting is especially devoted to all the hand sewing newbies among you. Some of you might have already figured this technique out by yourself. If you haven’t till now, then please follow me and join me on another hand sewing journey.
…and if you like, you can already practice this very basic technique while you are working at step 2 of our “Craft with Racaire” project – “hand sewing the sides“. 🙂

Todays motto is:
“Hand sewing – how to start a new thread & how to hide it in the seam”

And now to the second hint concerning the second step – “hand sewing the sides” – of our second “Craft with Racaire” project – the fast and easy pouch tutorial.

Btw. I used this very basic technique shown in the following photo tutorial several times myself while I was working at the side seams of the “fast and easy pouch” as well as for my 12th century silk dress and many other hand sewing projects…

The photos with the hand sewing stitches worked in a rather thick thread on this raw material allow me to show you the used techniques much better than if I would work them with fine silk thread on thin silk fabric. This tutorial as well as the other hand sewing tutorials I posted till now – or which will post in the future – show techniques which can be also used on much finer materials. You just need to adjust the used materials as well as the seize of your stitches.

…and now lets start with our new detailed photo tutorial – enjoy! 😀

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Well, I am quite sure that most of you faced the following problem at least once:
You still have a lot of seam to sew but you just run out of thread.
This problem is very basic and the solution is also very basic. You just attach a new thread and keep on sewing. It just gets a little bit more difficult if you don’t want this attached thread, a knot or the thread ends of the old and new thread to be visible. Following you will see how I attach a new thread and hide the thread ends in my seam.

At the picture underneath you can see the end of my thread. The thread got so short that my needle just slipped from it. This is a sign for me that it is time to start with a new thread. Just cut of a new sewing thread from your spool and thread your needle as usual.

The first thing I do after threading my needle, is to get back to my seam finishing and to carefully spread it a little – not much, just a little. Then I take my needle and pull the thread back from the left side of the folded seam (as shown on the picture above) to the middle of the seam finishing – to the right side of the folded seam (as visible on the picture underneath).

Then I take my needle with the “new” sewing thread and stitch through the folded seam again – from the middle of the seam finishing to the left side of the folded seam. I just stitch through the point through which I just pulled the “old” sewing thread back – through the folded seam as shown on the picture above.

Carefully pull your “new” thread through the folded seam until you reach the other end of your new thread. Btw. if your thread just slips through you can help yourself by making a knot about 4cm or 1in before the end of your thread. This knot can help to prevent the end of your thread from slipping through.

I take the thread ends of the “old” and of the “new” thread and make first one and then another knot. I try to place this knots as close as possible to the fabric.

Please be careful when pulling the knot tight – the “new” thread is still not attached anywhere. You can try to hold your “new” thread in your palm as I do on the picture above while you are pulling it tight.

Before proceeding it is good to make one short test – the knots should keep the thread in place. If the thread still moves a little, don’t hesitated to add another simple knot on top.

For the next step pull in your thread. Now you should see something similar to the picture on the top. Shorten your thread ends to about 4-5cm / 1in and place them into the middle of your seam finishing. With the help of your sewing needle or your embroidery scissors you can press your small knot into the middle of your seam finishing and away from the visible surface or the border of your seam.

From this point on you can proceed with your sewing and seam finishing as before. As soon as one of the thread ends tries to escape again, just use your thread and push it back into the middle of your seam finishing.

As you can see on the picture above – you can’t see that I just attached a new thread. No knots, no thread ends,… nothing is visible – just a proper seam. As I already mentioned, this works also very well with silk fabric, linen,… whatever you are working with.

My long descriptions of this technique might let this technique appear much more difficult than it actually is but I tried to describe every one of my steps as detailed as possible to avoid misunderstandings and to make it easier for you to rework it.

I hope you enjoyed this new photo tutorial. 😀

You can find all postings about this project in the category:
Craft with Racaire – #2 fast & easy pouch

Short overview of the postings till now:
Step 1) Fast and easy pouch tutorial & how to work with “rapports”
This posting explains how to calculate the needed fabric for the easy pouch tutorial. I also added some extra information: “how to work with rapports” (repeating patterns).
Step 1.1) Hand sewing stitches: Running Stitch…
This posting is an in-depth description of the first and most basic hand-sewing stitch you will need for this tutorial – the Running Stitch.
Step 1.2) Hand sewing stitches: Back Stitch (and Stem Stitch)…
Another in-depth description of another basic and helpful hand-sewing stitch you will need for this technique – the Running Stitch.
Step 2) Hand sewing the sides
Here you can find a detailed step-by-step photo tutorial about how I hand sew the sides of the “fast and easy pouch”. It includes all important basic steps for this process including the pinning, how to start with the sewing, how to secure your thread from slipping,…
Step 2.1) Hand sewing the corners
Another detailed step-by-step photo tutorial that shows you how to hand sew the nice pointy pouch corners of your fast and easy pouch.