Mastering Hand Sewing Stitches for Felt: A Beginner’s Guide
Hand stitching felt is a meditative and rewarding process, especially when creating whimsical stuffed animals and dolls. Because felt doesn’t fray, it is the perfect canvas for visible, decorative hand sewing stitches that add character and a “handmade” charm to your work. Here are the best hand sewing stitches to get you started!
If you’ve been following my patterns, you know that almost all my projects rely on these classic techniques. Whether you are a seasoned maker or just picking up a needle for the first time, I want to share my favorite methods for hand stitching felt to help you achieve professional, durable results.
I know that consistent stitching can seem a little intimidating at first. However, I promise you that with the right tips, a few helpful videos, and a little practice, you’ll be creating beautiful, even stitches for your felt projects in no time!
Essential Tools for Hand Stitching Felt
To achieve the best results with your hand sewing stitches, having the right supplies is just as important as the technique itself. Using high-quality materials ensures that your hand stitching felt experience is smooth and that your finished dolls and animals last for years to come.
1. Quality Wool Blend Felt
Choosing a high-quality wool felt is a critical step in your crafting process. While acrylic felt is accessible and fine for quick experiments, it often lacks the durability needed for detailed work.
With tighter hand stitching—especially on small dolls and toys—acrylic felt can sometimes pull apart or “shred” at the edges. A quality wool or wool-blend felt holds its shape beautifully and provides a sturdy base for your seams, ensuring your projects don’t fall apart during assembly.
2. The Right Hand Sewing Needle
For most of my projects, my go-to is a DMC Number 5 embroidery needle. It has the perfect weight and sharpness for gliding through wool blend felt. However, if you are working on felt miniatures or ultra-fine details, you may want to scale down to a smaller, thinner needle to keep your punctures nearly invisible.
3. Choosing Your Thread
While there are many options, here is what I recommend for the cleanest finish:
- All-Purpose Sewing Thread: This is my personal favorite! It is strong, thin, and allows the felt textures to take center stage.
- Embroidery Floss: This is a great alternative, but with a caveat—only use one or two strands. Using all six strands is much too thick for small-scale dolls and can make your stitches look bulky rather than delicate.
The Best Hand Sewing Stitches for Felt Projects
Below are the two most essential stitches I use daily to bring my felt creatures to life.
1. The Whip Stitch
The whip stitch is the go-to choice for joining two pieces of felt together quickly. It creates a clean, wrap-around effect on the edge of the fabric, which is perfect for small details like ears or limbs.
2. The Blanket Stitch
For a more decorative and secure edge, the blanket stitch is the gold standard. It creates a beautiful “frame” around your project and is incredibly sturdy, making it the best choice for the main bodies of felt dolls and animals.
Basic Sewing Stitches – Blanket Stitch
How to Sew a Blanket Stitch By Hand
The blanket stitch is my favorite of all hand sewing stitches because it is durable and strong. I have used this stitch in virtually every hand sewn felt project I have sewn in the last 10 years! Each stitch is almost like creating a little knot all of it’s own. The thread laid between stitches aids to reinforce the seams.
Blanket stitching can really take a beating and still hold your pieces with integrity! I find that I can stuff my felt animals and dolls to the max and yet the seams hold up endlessly. They even hold up after throwing pieces through the washing machine!
Hand Stitching Techniques – Starting and Stopping Stitches
A common practice in hand stitching technique is to start off by knotting your thread. Most knot the end of the thread on the needle and then begin sewing. I, however, like to knot the thread straight into the felt! You will notice in the beginning of the video above, that I start my projects by sending the needlethrough the width of the felt making one or two stiches then a knot. By stitching into the thickness of the felt you create a knot that holds tight yet cannot be seen from the outside of the felt surface.
After knotting your thread to the felt, send the needle out near the top edge of your project (or wherever you prefer to begin stitching).
Layer your felt pieces together so that the knot faces to the inside of the felt. Make your first stitch by sending the needle through both layers directly across from where your thread exited from the knot.
Pull the thread tight then insert the needle back through both layers about an 1/8 an inch away from the first stitch. Begin pulling the thread through until you have a small loop at the edge of the felt.
Insert your needle through the loop, then pull the thread tight against the edge. Continue this method along the edge of the felt.
At the end of the project, to finish your stitching, make one last knot then send the needle up though your stitched seam.
Pull the extra thread tight along the edge then snip the end off close to the seams.
Basic Hand Stitches – The Whip Stitch
The Whip stitch is the second runner up as the most used hand sewing stitches in my felt crafts projects. This hand stitching technique is also one of the easiest to learn and use in all sorts of sewing projects!
As in the tutorial and videos above, I start every project by knotting my thread onto the felt at the inside of my project.
After knotting I double my felt layers up and begin stitching.
Whip stitch is very simple. You literally send the needle through the felt. whip it around the other side and send it through again. Pull the thread tight against the edge and continue stitching.
As always to end my stitching I send the needle up through the seam of the sewn layers of felt. Pull the thread tight and snip the end off. This completes the project and hides where the stitching ends!
For a more in depth tutorial and demonstration of hand sewing stitching make sure and watch the videos above. Stay tuned for more Felt sewing videos and DIY tutorials.
Where to Start?
Your felt sewing journey can start right here! We have many options of craft kit projects curated for you with everything you need to start all in one nifty little box!
Or go ala’ carte, and choose your own felt colors and sewing patterns, stitching supplies and doll eyes!
