Stitching Experiments and Six Pointed Stars: The Ladder Stitch

Hello Friends and Welcome!

This week, I’m finally beginning the assembly of my Six Pointed Star blocks. And while I’ll be making progress, I’ll also be doing a little experimentation!

I’ve decided to deviate from my usual assembly method and try a few alternate piecing stitches. I’ll be exploring four different stitches, one for each of the four different Six Pointed Star colourways from last week’s Colour Scheming post, and sharing my thoughts on each. While there are only six seams per star, and rather short seams at that, it should be enough to either revise or prove my current opinions on each of the stitches I’ll be using.

I would like to emphasize that these posts are intended to record my thoughts and experiences, and are not tutorials for the stitches I’m exploring. However, I will be sure to provide links to proper tutorials where you can learn the stitch for yourself if you'd like!

To piece the first of my four stars, I’ll be starting off with the ladder stitch. I’ve used this stitch many times in the past, in fact I think it was one of the first stitches I ever learned, but I often find myself intentionally avoiding it. Perhaps my experiments this week will change that?

But before I start this week’s experiment, I should probably share a little more information about my usual stitching method, the invisible feather stitch:

A Very Brief Summary of the Invisible Feather Stitch

Until now, I’ve been assembling blocks for this project using the invisible feather stitch. While it may not be the fastest method, it creates small, neat stitches and a clean finish that’s virtually invisible from the front side of the project. Both of these are things that I consider to be very desirable and definitely worth a little extra effort to achieve.

Another thing I really like about this stitch is the pattern it creates on the back of the project. Although it’s not something I will get to see when the project is complete, I do very much enjoy watching it form while I stitch. It might actually be an interesting idea to make a project in the future that is stitched from the outside so I can preserve it where it can be seen.

I might need to look into that more in the future!

When I first researched this stitch, there was one particular tutorial that was referenced everywhere I looked, that being Pat Bravo’s invisible feather stitch video. I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re interested in learning this stitch for yourself!

With that out of the way, let's take a look at this week’s stitching experiment, the ladder stitch!

An Introduction to the Ladder Stitch

The ladder stitch is an invisible, hand sewn stitch commonly used to close gaps in seams from the right side of a project.

It is quite a versatile stitch, used to finish the lining of a garment after bagging it out, to close holes in pillows and stuffed animals after stuffing them, or to repair torn seams in completed projects. It can also be used in quilt making for binding, applique, and English paper piecing, although I believe there are other stitches for each of these that are more commonly used.

As another example of its versatility, the ladder stitch can be sewn from many different angles; it can be worked from the front or back of a project, with pieces faced right sides together or wrong sides together, or even with the pieces laid out edge to edge. This range of versatility makes the ladder stitch a really helpful technique to have in your sewing kit!

If you'd like to learn this stitch for yourself, I recommend checking out Penni Domikis of Cabin in the Woods Quilters. She shared a really great ladder stitch tutorial which includes both written and video instructions!

Preconceptions of the Ladder Stitch

While I understand the usefulness of the ladder stitch, it's definitely not one I default to for my own piecing.

From my past experiences, I tend to envision the ladder stitch as awkward to sew, resulting in long, imprecise stitches. Longer stitches tend to be weaker than small ones, but as the seams in the Six Pointed Star aren't load bearing, a weaker stitch would be perfectly acceptable.

One point in its favour is that the ladder stitch is nearly invisible, both from the front and back of a project. This means it can be worked from either side without leaving any obvious signs.

These combined perceptions of the ladder stitch, that of an invisible stitch that’s difficult to work with, have led me to only use it in the context of fixing seams from the right side of the fabric. And from what I remember from recent use, I'm pretty sure it has resulted in fairly short, even stitches, which kind of negates my earlier concerns.

I suspect the reason I truly haven't explored this stitch is that it was one of the stitches I learned really early in my life, at a time when I was definitely not interested in hand sewing and had pretty bad technique. My lack of experience was likely what cast this stitch in a bad light, and I'd like to revisit it and see if I can change my opinion!

Sewing the Ladder Stitch

With that somewhat more optimistic view, I’m now excited to get started on my ladder stitched version of the Six Pointed Star!

For this stitch, I chose to use my even two tone star variation; the strawberry print mixed with the solid red. I don’t have a thread colour that matches the red colour scheme of this block even remotely well, so I thought an invisible stitch was just the thing I needed!

I ended up using black thread, which actually contrasts the solid red fabric. But because of the black background of the strawberry print, I think the black thread worked rather well overall!

I also think my stitches turned out pretty well!

Because I know I’m out of practice, I gave myself permission to stitch rather slowly, giving myself the time I needed to ensure my stitches were as small as I wanted them to be. Despite this, I felt that my stitches did come out being kind of uneven.

I think the reason for this was just that I’m out of practice and struggled to find a rhythm to the stitching. I also found the positioning of the needle, virtually inside of the seam itself, to be pretty awkward, which again, would likely be solved with a little practice.

My use of a somewhat contrasting thread helped to prove to me exactly how invisible this stitch is since I ended up with no noticeable stitches on either the right or wrong sides of the finished applique, as shown below:

When comparing the stitching on the two sides, I do find that I prefer the way the seam looks from the wrong side, or the back of the project. I suspect that if I worked the stitch from the opposite side, with the pieces wrong sides together, I would be able to reverse this.

I may give the ladder stitch a little more testing on some future star blocks. I can't wait to see where this stitch takes me!

To wrap up my thoughts; I no longer believe that the ladder stitch produces long, weak stitching, that was clearly a lingering misconception from my early days learning the stitch as a child. I still think it’s awkward, but believe I could get better with practice. And finally, although I do prefer the invisible feather stitch for this type of sewing, I am looking forward to future experimentation with the ladder stitch!

Thank you Friends for joining me for this week’s stitching experiments! I really enjoyed testing the ladder stitch and altering my perceptions of it for the better!

Feel free to share some of your own tips and experiences using the ladder stitch in the comments below. I would love to learn what has worked for you!

After my experiment this week, I now have another applique completed for the Generations Quilt project! I'm so happy to be seeing this project progress and I hope both my Mom and Grandma are equally enthused by their own progress!

If you don't already know about the Generations Quilt project, check out my earlier post introducing it! You can keep up with my progress between posts by visiting me on Instagram @vafibrearts!

I'm so excited to continue more stitching experiments over the next few weeks and am looking forward to a new stitch next week!

Until Next Time Friends, Happy Quilting!

VA

Citations:

• Bravo, Pat. "English Paper Piecing - How to piece templates using invisible feather stitch with Pat Bravo 2017." Youtube, uploaded by Pat Bravo, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4E7jj9ZCWU.

• Domikis, Penni. "The Versatility of the Invisible Ladder Stitch." Cabin in the Woods Quilters, 2018, https://cabinquilters.com/the-versatility-of-the-invisible-ladder-stitch/.