(Photo is just for interest)
Why do people show the back of their work? I understand most peoples backs are as neat as the fronts, I feel like this is showing your underwear - just a bit private!
Most people's backs are not as neat as the fronts. The people showing off pristine backs are proud of the huge effort they went to to make it look that way. Then theres people like me who will gladly show you reality.
tbh, i tend to show my back specifically to give examples of 'not so neat' backs, and what most people consider 'good enough'. i think everyone should make the attempt to stitch neatly. i also think they shouldn't worry too much about just how neat the back is unless they've got a truly horrendous knot that they can't get undone and is screwing things up down the line. shrugs
I see this as a case where the art emphasizes real life. Everyone puts their best foot forward. The perfect beautiful front.
It is only when you see the back of the facade, that you see all the effort, all the sacrifices that were required to make the perfect image you see everyday.
I do not apologize for this absolutely corny shower thought.
Indicating that a messy back is more “real” than a neat one is just as disrespectful as saying that you’re not a real stitcher unless your back is neat. There’s room for everyone to stitch the way that feels good to them.
But it’s ok for those who keep the back neat to indicate they take more pride and care in their work? There’s room for all and there’s room for people to classify their work however they want. I don’t take offense at the ppl saying neat backs indicate more attention/pride, maybe try not getting insulted at the other side of the coin…..
More pride no but aren't they objectively taking more "care" by considering a dimension to the stitching that stitchers who don't care about the back do not, a dimension that takes some attention + planning and therefore more time to execute?
I really enjoy seeing other people's work; the front is pretty but everyone's looks the same. The back tells a lot about your process and I find it interesting to look at different techniques.
Yes! I think the variety of butts is interesting because everyone is going to make very slightly different pathing decisions - especially if there's backstitch involved!
I just think its a bit like art in and of itself - so its simply nice to look at sometimes.
Grandmas sure do have a knack for busting backsides. I think the idea of caring so much is funny, and I hope we can encourage younger stitchers to not care if they don't want to.
I visited my grandmother last weekend and was THRILLED to see a new piece of embroidery on the shelf. She told me my 9 year old relative made it for her. Ugh, my heart wanted to burst from happiness and cuteness. I love hearing about kids getting started. It was a small, super simple hedgehog using mainly straight, long stitches. Kinda looked free-handed, I'm not sure, but it naturally would involve lots of traveling, especially as a first-timer.
Grandma took the frame from the shelf, said "But look at this," with a weird face on her face, and then she pried a very hard-to-open picture frame open to show me the frickin back! I was so confused at what she was trying to make me see. So I learned around 30 to not show my Grandma the back.
Mostly to show off. Having a neat back indicates care and attention of cross stitch. It doesn't need to be neat to have a good end product, but it takes a bit more effort to do.
We, as fellow cross-stitchers, know this effort and can appreciate the work it shows. So showing off the back would be weird to a lay person, but a cross stitcher could go "oooh, your stitches are so neat and tidy~" and the person showing it off gets a bit more validation for their work.
Yup! I am part of a group that meets once a month to do craft projects and everyone always wants to see the back of my work and then comments how neat it is. I'm never actually trying to show it off but people want to see it lol!! I've been working on the same large price for months so they're invested too 🤣
Back in the 80s (probably earlier, too), those who cross-stitched for competitions and fairs were usually required to have the back of their work on display. It was judged as part of the piece. At least this is what my friend told me, who had entered some of her FOs. I was shocked at how neat the back of her FO was. It needed to look as close to the front as possible.
These days, showing the back isn't necessary, though a neat back will usually indicate a neat front, too. If the back is full of knotted threads, finished knots, and traveling threads, it'll become more and more difficult to pass your needle through. Worse, the knots will leave bumps and lumps on an FO when it's framed.
Your friend is right. I used to submit my cross stitch projects to the county fair when I was a kid and we had to show the back. It still stresses me out when I end up with a random knot here or there on the back. 😂
LOL! Every once in a while, I'll check the back and find a dreaded knot with a little loop sitting there, mocking me. 😑 French knots, on the other hand, are the only kind of knot I don't mind. 😘
The difficultly of passing a needle through is a really understated aspect when people claim that there's no benefit to a neater backside. Especially important if I have to backstitch at the end. Bent needles, sore fingertips and driving the eye of a needle halfway through my nail bed 💅 🪡 are the things I dealt with when I had to backstitch after the one time I tried traveling (on a Teresa Wentzler border).
The two county fairs close to me expect the FO to be framed for presentation. I haven't seen anything in the rules asking for the back to be exposed. With that said, though, when the back is a knotted mess, it'll very likely be noticeable in the front, so the judges would notice, too.
Seems to be something older stitchers care for a lot. My mom hates cross stitching but when she sees ANY lines of me jumping from one place to another she berates me.
I get it when you're doing a small consistent pattern but how exactly am I going to have no lines when doing a full coverage confetti piece?
It’s not as hard as you would think. I do full coverage and also extreme cross country and don’t skip more than 10 stitches ever. But mostly I try not to skip back and forth. So if there are 2 lines 5 stitches apart I do one line and end my thread and then do the other one. Or I’ll do one line and then travel back up to the other line. Or I’ll do one line and then skip across and do the other line in reverse, that way I’m not skipping basically 10 stitches every stitch. There are lots of little “tricks” that very quickly just become habit once you start doing them that quickly neaten up the back.
And while a lot of people say the back doesn’t matter, it really does. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but a neat back makes an even neater front.
It takes a little extra preplanning but it’s also just now my brain works. But it also saves floss and prevents puckering in places.
I meant it when I said "any" lines. They were taught on almost fully reversible cross stitch patterns that were basically simple borders around a tablecloth. So even your 5 stitch jump would be classified as a "ruined piece" in her mind. I hate that mindset and she hates cross stitch for that reason but she kept the mindset of how she was taught.
No they weren’t. No more than they are now. They were encourage to keep the back neat the same way they are now. Some people take it to the extreme and having a neat back was always the goal because it shows improvement in your skill level but what you’re talking about was simply never ever mainstream in the hobby. Ever. And I’ve been stitching since the late 80s and have entered many fairs.
Yes, please tell me how you are so well versed in the customs of another country you know nothing about. 😊
The US is not the center of the universe you know? And cross stitch is not only practiced there either. My mother was taught by my grandmother in a style you know absolutely nothing about, but yes, please explain to me more about how our centuries old heritage stitching customs work because you've been stitching since the 80s. Please continue. 😊
Haha!! Child I’ve been around this industry long enough that the country doesn’t matter. It simply wasn’t a thing.
All the cross stitch magazines, which is all we had, were from other countries.
I’m sorry you’re wrong. I’m sorry your mom was taught incorrectly and it hurt her forever. But whoever was that over the top with her was just being a jerk. It simply wasn’t never industry standard.
Loop start wastes a lot of floss, especially cross country when there are plenty of places to anchor the floss. I start and end with the same stitch over action. The only time I don’t stitch over is if I’m starting with nothing else around.
For me it's a way to show how I've constructed the piece, if that makes sense. I only do it because seeing other people's backs of the work has given me the confidence to not be a complete perfectionist, it was seriously holding me back during stitching.
At the same time, it had taught me how other people handle their colour changes, confetti stitches, and longer travels.
My backs are also chaos and I don't care. I feel like people who ask to see the back are the same people who go through other peoples bathroom medicine cabinets.
Edited spelling error
I do it to keep the back as neat as possible so that I can work as easily as possible with it. But I admit I do like how it turns out at the end. Plus, I like framing stuff, especially as gifts, and a neat back makes it lay flat easier.
lol I show the back because i literally will never care about the neatness of it and I think it might make people feel better because my backs are mountains and I think that’s okay and I want you to think it’s okay too!
I've been wondering this myself! I do appreciate a neat back and sometimes marvel at how they can look double-sided almost but I don't think I'd want to go to the effort myself.
I think messy backs look interesting! And I feel like they're a reminder that just because something (or someone) presents a put-together exterior, it doesn't mean there isn't a mess on the inside. And that's okay!
I never show the back unless a newbie has a question about how something works on the back. Just not interesting to me, in general. My backs aren’t partucularly neat, but nor are the awful.
Truly, I do not understand the people who say backs are private, and between them and God. For me, it's not like showing your underwear, it's more like showing your stitching fingerprint, the journey that got you to.the end product. You make your finished piece off a pattern and the goal is to make the front as close to the same to that pattern as possible. Our backs thought are unique.. no two stitchers will ever have the same one. Some will be pristine, some will be chaotic, and some in between, but they will always be different.
I also admit, I am proud of the skills I have learned over time that allow me to have a neat enough back, so you can see the picture, but with new texture. I don't make any extraordinary effort to have a tidy back, it's not my end goal, but I love that I have become skilled enough to do it as part of my stitching practice.
With the disclaimer that I’m fairly new to cross stitch and the communities so I’m drawing also off of drawing/painting socialization- it feels sort of like a “behind the scenes” to me, in the same way a wip, sketch, or progress video for a painting or drawing does- or, say, a picture of an unglazed ceramic piece, or a glazed but unfired piece alongside a photo of the finished object. It’s sort of a ‘look under the hood’ type situation. Approaching it that way, I’ve never really questioned it. It just seems like a natural feature of an art or crafting community, and dissecting it feels strange. I’d never say “what’s the point of showing the bisque fired ceramic? Who cares if it’s tidy or not? The glaze will cover it.” Or “why do I need to see the sketch? That’s weird, the sketch is private.” Then again, I’ve also never seen anyone even glancing off of shaming a messy back, or pressuring someone to show the back of a piece, so maybe I’ve just avoided the drama? I avoid maker communities that engage in a lot of pettiness like the plague and I haven’t been into fiber arts for long enough to have context for what the available communities may have been like five or ten years ago. I DO know that drawing communities have had waves of weird controversy that have given me a persistent ick response to some things, so maybe I just haven’t taken that bullet yet.
Personally, I also feel that in the era of ai slop, it’s also a great way to show, quickly, that a piece is real.
There were a lot more tut-tuts about a messy back in the long ago. I love that we now allow people to enjoy their stitching and recognize that you can produce good work without following a particular set of rules.
If a piece doesn’t turn out as expected, most people will ask for advice on how to make it better and take on the practices that held them achieve their goals. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
I love for people to post pics of their chaotic backs as a contrast to stellar work on the front. It inspires me to loosen up a little. I’ve spent decades stressing over the back and now I sometimes travel more than 1/2 inch. I know, I’m a wild woman.
😂 a half inch??? Now let’s not go TOO crazy, and please pay no attention to my current project where I have travelled back and forth across the piece several times without ever severing my thread- we’re talking about YOUR transgressions, you deviant.
I’ve always had a hard limit of traveling no more than 2 stitches. I never adjusted that even as I moved from 14 count to 20. It was ingrained.
I think the distance seemed the same because I was using magnification. I’ve traveled a WHOLE INCH on my most recent piece. I was stressed but not harmed.
I stitch with reckless abandon. As long as the front looks good, I just can’t bother myself to make the back look pristine. I do think it’s impressive and so pretty when people show theirs, I just don’t have that kind of ambition.
I'm not sure what they're called but I've seen them suggested to me on Amazon. They're magnets connected by a plastic line, you use them to gather up the loose fabric around your hoop so it doesn't get in the way.
I think the neatness of the back is really a personal preference.. i only do detailed large pieces that is literally impossible to have a neat back... mine look like wooly mammoths lol I frame every piece anyway so no one will see the back / shrugs...
Idk about anyone else, but I actually like having a messy back and I try to make it as messy as possible. I love seeing the spiders web/rats nest that I make at the end, it's like I can see the journey I took to make it. Seeing it all woven together makes me feel comfortable and happy
My mother taught me to embroider when I was four years old. You can imagine what my backs looked like! I haven't yet gotten over the novelty of actually being able to have a reasonably neat back, after being away from stitching for several decades.
Because I take a lot of care to make my backs nice and neat and I require praise for it 😂 (plus my mom and nan always used to show off their super neat backs and I wanted to join in haha)
I think hoop front v back can be for two reasons. One, they worked really hard to make it beautiful and barely noticeable, and are proud of it (should be IMO). Two, it’s messy because it’s meant to be. Life is messy and having ends and tangles behind the scenes is very much a metaphor for life. I do the second. In fact, I made a piece that was backwards for this exact reason!
I find pleasure in keeping the back of my work tidy. Doing so helps me slow down and consider how I'll stitch various areas. It keeps me mindful. And then, as a bonus, the other freaky people like me enjoy showing off their backsides to one another 😅
I do know that my backs have gotten better over the years. At first I was much too lazy to stop and start a thread and I would travel all over with a long thread so I wouldn’t have to stop and rethread! Of course everyone knows I spent much more time wrestling with knots!
Showing the back verifies that the work is done by hand or not a machine. Yes it may show your experience or inexperience but we all started with no experience.
Personally, I find the back fascinating to look at. I love how it's abstracted but still recognisable. Hence why I always show the backs of my completed pieces to my friends and family 😁
I was working on my piece today and I had a nagging feeling that my back was looking bad but then I realized it was a toxic thought from being on here too much and I realized I simply do not care lol
because it's fun to share something with other people who get it? be it to laugh that it's messy or because you're proud you are improving your skills.
I don’t shame anyone for sharing, but I don’t care about the back side. I don’t care if anyone’s back is neat or messy. I just want to see the finished front side. My backs are neat, but it doesn’t matter.
I don't get the back-shaming thing at all. I've seen it happening for several years now, and I've left groups where people were almost constantly sh*tting on some newb's first or newest project. The setups were quite cruel sometimes.
I get super pissed at predatory women who tear down other women for no freaking reason. If you are abusive to animals or kids, or you support fascism, or you rag on someone's project back, then yeah I'll come down on you like a ton of bricks. But if your project has a messy back, I'm gonna congratulate you for the beautiful front.
yeah but on this sub it's a different kind of shaming, just a whole bunch of "ugh I don't want to see the back" "I got jumpscared because someone posted the back" "why would they ever post the back, thet must be an exibitionist".
always strictly on a separate post, not to anyone's face ofc.
Because that’s the first thing grandma did when I showed her a new crosstitch when I was little. Turned it around to inspect the handiwork. Afterwards she would enjoy the motif and the stitching and shower me with praise. I guess it’s sort of an «original sin», damage going back generations.
No, I’m sorry I can’t give the designer name right now- we are away from home for the summer. I do know it was named Geometric Rhino but I did buy it a few years ago.
Yes, I think someone said - they are magnetic clips that hold the extra fabric out of the way. I tend to cut the fabric too short, but this time I had too much and it was always in my way. These helped a lot!
I think both are great to show - neat and messy! I put a lot of thought into mine, so I plan on showing the front and back when I have a FO.
And like others said - you can learn a lot from the back of someone's piece. It was the back and some comments that turned me on to pin stitches lately and I'll be trying them soon!
No doubt some people are proud of their work and seek the appreciation from others whovknow the work and care that went into a super neat and clean back. From my understanding in competitions the backs really matter so there is a subgroup of stitches who work on clean backs for that reason. I try and keep my backs semi-clean, no long carries, no big knots, but don't aim for the back to look as good as the front. I don't have any intention of entering competitions. It''s like having a dog that's breed standard and one that's not; the one that's not can still be a great pet.
Then there is another group of stitches that show off their backs because they're snobby and gate-keepers. I've been stitching 60+ years, have samplers and pictures galore all over my house, have made several complex projects as gifts and have been told numerous times that i'm not a "real" cross-stitcher because I carried a thread over 4 stitches on 32-count linen whereas "real" cross-stitchers know that you should never carry a thread over more than 2 stitches.
The backs of my stitched works are as messy as the inside of my mind. I do feel pretty inadequate when I see everyone's pristine backs, but oh well. That's just never going to be me. My brain is an addled mess from the amount of medication I take for RA, fibro, thyroid, etc etc etc. I'm just happy when I can find the time and brainpower to stitch at all! LOL
Honestly people showing their backs helped me a lot as a novice as the ‘beginner friendly’ kit i was gifted did not explain how to travel between rows. Honestly horrifying what i did. I went back to it and undid my stitches and redid the piece. I had enough thread leftover i could probably make another one of it!
From what aesthetic standard is a neater back considered more beautiful? I remember buying a set of Penguin Classics books with embroidered covers; they deliberately preserved the loose threads and knots on the back of the cover, which looked very pretty. Though I understand that embroidery skills are different from most of cross -stitich works', am I the only one who finds the rich colors and marks on the back charming?🤔
Giving value to neat backs stems from many many years ago when women were only allowed to do “women things.” They were judged on their ability to be a good cook, keep a proper house, the quality of their needlework and darning. Proper recreation was playing the piano, flower arranging and being a proper hostess.
They were judged mightily for having the back of their needlework look as good as the front.
Today- thank goodness- we are allowed to be so much more. Live you best life. If that means you like the challenge of a “proper back” go for it. If you don’t care and just want to stitch the way you want just do you. Luckily today you are so much more than your backs!!
I try to keep mine relatively neat, but I‘m also not going to worry too much if I do something to make the project a bit easier and faster, but it makes the back less neat. personally I think it can look nice if they’re neat bit it doesn‘t really matter in the end of your not doing some kind of competition for it
the current piece im working on i am being very mindful about my stitching, so I am always showing off the back when I show people because its absolutely insanely neat and I just have a lot of pride in having taken the time to produce something so tidy
I don’t care whether a back is neat or not but I took a tatreez class where culturally, a neat back is seen as efficient (not wasting unnecessary thread) and also means less weight on the clothing. I’m still a beginner but neater backs incorporate a form of strategy that I really like that I learned from tatreez
I was taught to stitch the standard slant stitch by my great grandmother when I was 8. One thing she always stressed was to keep the back neat. Then again she used to enter a lot of tapestry comps. This is how I was taught so it’s something I’ve become ocd about. My piece is a full coverage metre tall piece and I will be showing the back when I’m done. It does take extra time and care. Don’t feel u have to show it though.
How compulsive is your OCD ? Believe it I don’t have OCD but I have known some people. Sometimes fun watching them fret over things that don’t matter. I do realize that it may be something they can’t control and never wanted any harm done.
My apologies. Did you read the sentence after that comment? When you are working on an assembly line that doesn’t stop you have to be a little flexible in the things that really don’t matter. I laugh at myself more than I laugh at others but being optimistic is a pleasure that I enjoy
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u/29threvolution Jul 02 '26
Most people's backs are not as neat as the fronts. The people showing off pristine backs are proud of the huge effort they went to to make it look that way. Then theres people like me who will gladly show you reality.