Chain Stitch Look Patch Tutorial

Have you seen names or patches made with vintage chain stitch machines? They have that vintage look and I've always loved anything made with this technique. My favorite part of chain stitched names, patches, and designs is how no two are exactly alike, and how the work reflects the hand of the maker.

I've been playing with a new toy (it's a presser foot!), and have figured out how to make simple chain stitch look names and words.

The secret is the BERNINA Free-motion Couching foot #43, a foot that makes it possible to use free-motion stitching with cording. Learn all about this versatile foot in this complete post for Tips for Free-motion Couching with foot #43!

The foot #43 comes with a special cord guide that attaches to the side of your machine, making the cording feed easily while you sew. The foot and guide both help keep the cording out of your way so you can use both hands while free-motion stitching. It's seriously like sewing magic.

You can find my free tutorial to learn How to Make Patches With Free-Motion Couching here at BERNINA's WeAllSew blog. For this patch I used a 100% cotton round yarn which gives a very similar look to a chain stitched patch when stitched with matching thread.

If you're a free-motion stitching pro, you won't have any issues "writing" script words or names with this technique. In my tutorial linked above, I share a tip for using lightweight tear-away stabilizer as a way to create an easy template to follow.

Of course this means carefully tearing away all traces of stabilizer after stitching, so make sure you have a set of tweezers handy.

Use this technique to add words or names to a jacket, backpack, totebag, pillow, or anything that you can easily slide under your needle. I turned my words and names into simple patches (find all the deets for making patches with an iron-on backing in the tutorial linked above) that can be added to anything.

Enjoy!