Hi, I'm Dawn Anderson and I'm showing you how to sew by hand. Right now we're working on the whip stitch.
The whip stitch is a very basic hand hemming-stitch, which is characterized by very small, diagonal stitches on the top side of the fabric, which if you're making a hem, this would actually be the inside of your garment and then on the reverse side, there are very small, nearly invisible stitches. Certainly if you use matching thread, you wouldn't see them at all and that's why we do hems by hand because they are nearly invisible, machines cannot replicate this stitch yet.
To begin the whip stitch, cut approximately 18 inches of thread. Thread your needle on one end and tie a small knot in the other end. To begin the stitch sequence, you will start from the underside of the folded edge. Take your needle through, start out this way and then you're going to come across the folded edge, pick up a very small amount of fabric, swing your needle under the folded edge, like that and then pull the thread through.
The second stitch, you’ll see the angle a little bit better, come across, take up a small amount, swing your needle under and pull the thread through. You can begin to see a nice diagonal stitches on the top side and just a small amount of fabric that we take up. See the diagonal and then I will flip it over and show you the very small stitches that you would see on the reverse side. You can use this stitch to hem trousers, sleeves, jackets, even close up linings. Continue sewing your stitch sequence for as long as your seam. When you're finished, go ahead and knot it on the top side. So, again form your knot, have it go right down to the fabric surface, put your thumb on it, pull it tight, cut your thread and that's how you sew a whip stitch.
Now, let’s move on to sewing the slip stitch.
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