Feather Stitch: How to Do It Step by Step

Feather Stitch is a hand embroidery stitch that makes branching zigzag of open loops. Makers reach for it for crazy quilt seams, borders, foliage. It is rated intermediate here, so it helps to be comfortable with the basic stitches first and to practice on a swatch before a project.

1. Bring the needle up at the top of the line. 2. Insert the needle to the right, level with the start point, and bring it up below and between the two points with the thread under the needle. 3. Pull through to form a V loop. 4. Insert the needle to the left, level with where it just came up, and bring it up below and between with the thread under the needle. 5. Continue alternating right and left down the line. Anchor the last loop with a small stitch. Work slowly for the first few repeats, keep your tension even, and check the result against the steps before continuing across a whole row or motif.

The most common problems are: losing the zigzag rhythm; loops too tight, so the stitch looks like a line. Most are easy to spot if you pause after a few repeats and compare your work with the steps. Good light helps a great deal, especially with dark yarn or thread.

Stitches closely related to feather stitch include Fly Stitch, Blanket Stitch. Learning them together makes patterns easier to read, because many designs switch between related stitches to change texture, height or line. Each has its own step-by-step page in the stitch dictionary.