Hand Sewing Stitches For Garment Sewing (Photos Included)

Learn how to hand sew the 3 most common stitches used in sewing clothes

Hey y’all, today I’m going to talk with you about sewing by hand. There are 3 hand sewing stitches that I find very useful when sewing garments. The running stitch, the blind stitch, and the hem stitch all regularly make appearances in my sewing projects.

What, you thought just because you have a sewing machine you never have to hand sew? While it is possible to sew clothing without eve holding a sewing needle in your hand, a little time for hand-stitching often makes the finished garment that much better.

Let’s break these stitches down. In the images below I am using sharp hand sewing needles, and all purpose polyester thread in a contrasting thread color so you can see the stitches.

The Running Stitch

The running stitch is the easiest of the three stitches, and is useful for gathering. Especially if you are gathering a long section, when a machine basted stitch might break. A running stitch can also be used as a basting stitch, and combinations of straight running stitches can be used in visible mending.

To sew a running stitch, you just push your threaded needle back and forth through evenly sized folds of fabric – folded accordion style. If you are going to use this to gather the fabric, make sure you’re sewing near the edge of the fabric.

To gather, you pull the thread (I often even leave the needle attached). Smaller stitches will result in finer gathers. If you space the stitches evenly, the running stitch will appear identical on the right and wrong side of the fabric.

The Blind Stitch (aka Ladder Stitch or invisible stitch)

This is the hand sewing stitch I use most often – it gives a great finish on collars (and also works great to close up pillows, bean bags and the like). Here’s a video showing how to do this stitch. You can also watch on YouTube here or scroll below the video for a photo tutorial to sew a ladder stitch. In the video I am using embroidery thread so that the stitches are easier to see, but you wouldn’t want to do that in a garment.

To do this, you need two pieces of fabric with their seam allowances folded in towards each other. I often pin these together with my pin parallel to the folds. Start by hiding your knot in a seam allowance. Then, take the first stitch in the seam allowance parallel to the fold or the stitching line (as in the picture below).

Then pick your needle up and take another stitch the same way in the seam allowance on the other side, making sure your stitch doesn’t go through to the outside of the item. You want to put your needle in across from the end of the previous stitch. You’ll create a series of stitches like the image below, which might look like a bunch of Vs or a ladder of stitches.

When you pull the thread, the two seam allowances will pull together, hiding the stitching in between them. The stitching shouldn’t be visible on the front side or the back side if this is sewn properly.

The Hem Stitch

Now, if you read my tutorial about blind hemming with your machine, you might not ever need this stitch. But sometimes I still use it, because if you’re hemming something tiny, it’s often easier than doing the setup for a blind hem.

In the video below I demonstrate how to sew a hem stitch by hand to hem a pair of pants. Skip to 11:06 if you just want to see the stitch. You can also watch this video on YouTube here.

To do this, first press your hem, then tie a knot in the end of the thread. Hide your knot in the seam allowance.

Stitch perpendicular to the hem fold, going through just a few threads from the right side of the fabric on the outside.

Move needle over and repeat. The inside will look like the image below, a series of loops.

And the outside will look like this, though of course you would want to use matching thread so these stitches will be nearly invisible.

I hope those stitches help you finish your projects beautifully this year!