Stitching Experiments and Six Pointed Stars: The Flat Back Stitch

Hello Friends and Welcome Back!

Last week, I took a break from my ongoing stitching experiments to share a new Project Update! After focusing so much on the Generations Quilt over the past few weeks, it was a really nice reminder of all the other things I've worked on throughout the month!

But now I'm excited to resume my stitching experiments and complete another Six Pointed Star block!

So far, I've tackled the ladder stitch and the whip stitch, and while both managed to exceed my expectations for speed and neatness, neither has overtaken the invisible feather stitch as my preferred prepared edge piecing method. But perhaps this week will change that!

This week's experiment will feature the flat back stitch; a fairly recent addition to my sewing arsenal but one with many possible applications! This is the first opportunity I've had to test this stitch in the context of an actual project, so I'm hoping to give it a fair opportunity to challenge my existing stitching preferences!

Let's get to it!

An Introduction to the Flat Back Stitch

The flat back stitch is an invisible alternative to the better known whip stitch. While not one I would consider to be particularly well known, this stitch seems to be a somewhat common option for English paper piecing and sewing together knitted or crocheted projects.

Since this stitch requires a folded or otherwise finished edge to be worked, these types of projects are perfect for using it!

One thing that makes the flat back stitch particularly unique is the orientation of the pieces during assembly. While most piecing is done with the pieces placed right sides together, atop one another, this one is worked with the finished edges of pieces butted up to one another so they lie adjacent.

This alternate orientation is really useful for ensuring pieces and points remain properly aligned during sewing, and to prevent warping of the fabric along bias or curved edges.

Although I can't recall seeing it used in garment construction, I can imagine several ways these interesting characteristics of the flat back stitch could be useful for other types of projects as well!

To learn this stitch, I referenced a video by Mathew Boudreaux, also known as Mister Domestic. The video introduces the flat back stitch in the context of sewing curved seams in English paper piecing projects and also includes a glue basting demo if you're interested in learning about that as well!

Preconceptions of the Flat Back Stitch

Of all the stitches explored throughout my stitching experiments, the flat back stitch is the one I am least experienced with.

I first learned about it while researching English paper piecing techniques this past summer and used it to create a test piece displaying several different EPP stitches. The flat back stitched seam was fairly short, only about 1 ½" long, and is the only time I can remember using it.

Obviously this isn't a significant enough experience to become comfortable working the stitch, but I did come away from the experience with some opinions. And unfortunately, those opinions aren't particularly positive.

From that brief experience, I found the flat back stitch to be awkward.

Being a new stitch, I didn't quite know the rhythm of it, so the process of sewing each stitch didn't come easily, the small size of the sample pieces gave me very little to hold onto, possibly contributing to my difficulties, and the side by side orientation of the pieces was another new experience. All of these likely built upon each other to increase my awkwardness and possibly confuse me a little too.

Since these biases were drawn from only about 1½" of stitching, I'm expecting to come out of this week's experiment with an amended opinion. I can't wait to see how it goes!

Sewing the Flat Back Stitch

Since the flat back stitch is so new to me, I thought it best that I use a sample that would help to hide my stitching. So for this experiment, I'll be using the busy selection of metallic printed neutrals found in my six tone star variation:

Not only will this busy combination of prints help to hide any uneven stitching, but the variety of neutral fabrics matches several of the neutral thread colours I have in my collection!

I opted to use a medium grey for my experiment since it blended well with most of the prints, making my stitches quite invisible!

However, matching thread doesn't make learning a new stitch any easier and I did maintain the opinion that the flat back stitch is particularly awkward to sew.

Holding the fabric pieces edge to edge like this was certainly a new experience to me and keeping them in that position was quite challenging. It's nearly impossible to pin them without an additional piece of fabric acting as a support, which I decided was too much effort to do anyway, and the larger pieces often slipped from my hands, especially as additional piecing increased the weight.

The odd fabric positioning resulted in my first seam being sewn with the two pieces at slightly different elevations, creating the crest or ridge seen in the photo above. The ridge may yet flatten out once the basting threads have been removed, so I'm really not particularly concerned about it.

For the rest of my seams, I was able to keep them relatively flat and even, but it was a challenge. I suspect there are several ways to alleviate this, use of paper supports, clips, or tape to name a few, and I'm interested to do a little more research to see how much of an impact these alternate techniques actually have on the successful execution of the flat back stitch!

But all that aside, I do still want to take a closer look at the stitches themselves.

In my previous stitching experiments, I realized that the pattern of stitches as they appear on the wrong side of the fabric is actually something that's quite important for maintaining my motivation while assembling a project.

In this case though, the look of my stitches doesn't seem to have been a problem.

Despite the fact that they look, to my eye at least, messier and more uneven than any of my other experiments so far, I am much more forgiving of them. This could just be because I’m aware that I’m still in the process of learning the stitch, or it could be that I chose an appropriately blendable thread colour that makes it less noticeable.

Either way, it’s very encouraging to know that I am capable of thinking kindly about some of my messier stitching attempts, which definitely bodes well for the possibility of continued experimentation!

To conclude my thoughts on this experiment; the flat back stitch feels awkward, that much hasn't changed, and while I'm not yet comfortable working with it, I am interested in further research and experimentation!

Friends, thank you all for joining me in this most recent stitching experiment!

I may still have a lot to learn about the flat back stitch, but this small amount of experience has already taught me so much! And though I do still prefer the invisible feather stitch for this type of hand piecing, I always love challenging myself to try new techniques!

If you have any tutorials, tips, or stories related to your own experiences with the flat back stitch, I would be so excited to hear about those in the comments below! Perhaps your advice may promote this stitch to someone's new favourite?

If you’re interested to learn more about the Six Pointed Star blocks I’ve been making throughout the duration of my stitching experiments, check out my Generations Quilt post! It explains the premise behind this quilt project and shows off the blocks that originally inspired it.

Next week, I’ll be wrapping up my stitching experiments with one final technique; the running stitch. This experiment will be a little different from the others I’ve worked on so far, so please visit me again next week to see how it goes!

Until Next Time Friends,

VA

Citations:

• Boudreaux, Mathew. “English Paper Piecing: Curves & Flat Back Stitch with Mister Domestic.” YouTube, uploaded by Mister Domestic, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2IGWIsbgaw&ab_channel=MisterDomestic.