Satin stitch is both a simple stitch and a tricky one. It’s one of those things where the basics can be learned very easily, but perfecting it can take a long time.

Ideas for Satin Stitch

Satin stitch is great for small areas. You don’t want your stitches to be more than about 1/2 an inch long. If you need to fill areas where stitches will be longer, but still want a smooth appearance, look into other stitches, such as Romanian couching or long and short stitch. Satin stitches are often used to fill small flower petals, simple geometric shapes, and so on.

It’s a great stitch to use for a boundary on cutwork, keeping the fabric from fraying back. If you work the Hardangersøm technique, kloster blocks are simply sets of 5 satin stitches.

In counted projects, satin stitch can be used to create designs by varying the length of the stitches so that a series of them makes triangles, squares, or even circles. This can be done in non-counted work as well, but even groupings of stitches are more difficult to maintain.

Tips for Stitching

• If you are working satin stitch on a non-counted ground where the design is drawn in, make sure you keep your stitches on the outside of the printed line. This will make your stitching slightly bigger than the outline, but it will keep the outline hidden. If you have not used disappearing pen this can be an issue.
• If you are having problems keeping the outlines of your satin stitch even, try outlining it with stem stitch or another outline stitch once you have finished the satin work. This can sometimes create a bit of a cartoony look, but it does disguise uneven edges.
• A tip that we’ll go over in a later video – the edges of satin stitch can be created in a more even manner if you first outline the motif with a split stitch. Then stitch the design over that outline. The satin stitch will lie flatter, and the edges will more easily cover the drawn outline. This does raise the stitching slightly. It may not wear as well as the stitch worked directly on the ground, and it can add a bit of dimension that you may not want.