Free Instructions for How to Blanket Stitch
- 1). Place two pieces of fabric together, lining up the edges. If you have one piece of fabric with a folded hem, the folded hem will be the bottom piece of fabric. If you have a single layer with no hem, the knot from your floss will be visible on the wrong (or bottom) side of your fabric.
- 2). Thread a length of embroidery floss on your embroidery needle, and knot one end. There is no exact measured length for the floss. Instead, choose a length that is long enough to work with for some time, but not so long as to become tangled or knotted as you work.
- 3). Starting near one corner or edge, slip the needle between the layers of fabric and insert it up through the top layer of fabric. Pull the length of the floss through until the knot catches between the layers.
- 4). Position the edge you are stitching closet to you, with the body of the piece away from you. Insert the needle through both layers of fabric--from front to back--to the right of where the needle came out on the front of the fabric. The width of your blanket stitch is determined based on the desired spacing between each stitch or "ladder rung."
- 5). Pull the needle and the floss through the back of the fabric pieces, but do not pull the floss tight. Instead, stop pulling when you have a small loop of floss on top of your fabric. Using your needle, open the loop and pull the needle through the loop. (The needle is coming over the edge of the fabric and away from your body toward the body of the piece.) Pull the floss tight, so that it becomes trapped under your stitch as it pulls the edges of the fabric together.
- 6). Move an equal distance to the right again, and insert the needle into the front of the fabric. Pull the needle and floss through the two pieces of fabric, exiting the back. Do not pull the thread tight. Repeat Step 5. Each stitch hereafter will create a backward "L" shape--all together these Ls will form rungs and one side of a ladder. The needle is always inserted from the front to the back, then moved up around the edge and through the loop.
- 7). Repeat step 5 until you are one stitch width away from the fabric's corner. Insert the needle and complete the final stitch--it will be angled over the corner point. Turn the fabric in your hands so the new edge you are working on is closest to your body, and continue as above, inserting the needle and floss from front to back to complete the first stitch on the new edge.
- 8). Repeat the stitches around all the edges of your layered fabric. After the last stitch is made, insert your needle under the angled first stitch. Pull the floss through. The angled stitch will be pulled up into a straight ladder rung. Knot the thread at the edge of the fabric. Insert the needle between the layers on the edge and bring it out the back of the fabric a couple of inches from the edge. Cut the thread.
Source...