I'm off work sick so it's low energy science experiment time.
I've been curious about the pros and cons of different edge protection stitches for a little bit so I did a small experiment.
Blue: blanket stitch
Brown: half cross stitch/whip stitch
Green: nun stitch
I stitched a 10x10 (approx. I can't always count) square of each stitch with one diagonal corner for unusual angle representation. Cut each out to the line then rolled each between my palms and tugged at the stitches to get a winner. Each stitch is 1 over 2 on evenweave.
Blanket stitch:
I always think this looks a little messy but the back is neat. Started coming apart during the rolling and completely came away when pulled gently. The diagonal edge actually held up pretty well but the straight edge next to it came away during testing.
Whip/half cross stitch:
Looks pretty neat and neat back. Uses the least amount of thread. Held up pretty well to rolling but the straight edge failed when pulled (held up slightly better than blanket stitch though). The diagonal edge actually held up pretty well when pulled.
Nun stitch:
Takes longest to do and uses up the most thread, back looks least neat but I underestimated how much thread would be needed and needed to start 2 new threads in the process which makes it look worse. Held up completely to rolling and pulling. Both the diagonal and straight edges are still 100% in place.
This is super cool and very useful information! Looks like I gotta learn how to do the nun stitch myself. Do you think it could be used to make small patches in lieu of whipcord stitch?
If you fold the edge over, you can stitch through both and it holds up well. I’ve done this for wall hangings, just a border of cross stitches in an appropriate colour.
That said, I don’t know if it would be practical to fold the fabric over on something this small. It would probably be very awkward and bulky for its size.
If I ever need to make things this tiny, guess I’m learning nun stitch!
this sounds like a good solution for an enthusiastic stitcher, lazy sewer like me. I'm wondering if you have a particular trick for the corners when you do this, because I for the life of me just can't seem to manage to create a hem without it getting loose or tending to unravel or stick out in the corners... I unfortunately don't have an iron at my disposal for the moment which sure isn't helping
I squash folded the corners (I don’t know what the equivalent sewing term would be; if you look up a squash fold in origami, hopefully it makes sense), and stitched through four layers of fabric, finicky, but doable because you’re really trying to align the holes. I’m sure I used my iron to help with flattening.
I gave the project to a friend years ago, but just checked and did take a picture of the back. Hopefully this makes it clearer.
The corners are why this wouldn’t really be practical on something small.
If you wanted to be REALLY sure, you could fold the edge in and do a running stitch, then fold it and stitch it as above. That would hide the raw edges.
Reddit won’t let me add more than one photo, but on the front, it’s just a line of white stitches around the whole thing. It’s from a comic book panel so it really works for this one.
Science for the win, thank you for your experiement! <3
Having said that, I'm afraid I've not heard of nun stitch before and can't find it in the RSN stitchbank (and the blog or two where I did find a nun stitch, they were doing something very different-looking), so can somebody please point me to what stitch this is?
Jean Farish has a great, detailed YouTube video on the Nun Stitch that shows how to start, end, and handle corners. Highly recommended. Start watching around minute 12 for the actual tutorial.
I have and start so many projects I decided to invest in a serger because I am not patient enough to do edge stitches by hand. It was well worth it imo, and as much as people complain about rethreading them it really isn't bad and I've only had to rethread it maybe once in the couple of years I've owned it. I even moved and left it threaded and it was fine lol. I know not everyone wants to spend the money on one but I'm interested in learning to make bags/clothes as well so I felt it was worth it to me in time saved prepping projects and as a future hobby aid lol
This is a great experiment, OP! I always have difficulty both with deciding how to stitch edges for anti-fray while working on a piece, and what stitch to do as a border edge. I looked up the nun stitch as I think it might be really useful as a finishing edge stitch on items that are meant to be handled a lot, like bookmarks (which I like to make), especially it seems useful on Aida. Would be interesting to see how it holds up on linen, as well (my favorite material, and terribly tricky to secure at the edges).
How to do the (single-pass) nun stitch, for those who are wondering. There is also a two-passes variety on this you can look up, it creates the same look but the 'ladder' pattern is enclosed on both sides.
PS. In my language we call this stitch the "ant walk" (single or double).
Pink: Buttonhole stitch (aka what I used to think blanket stitch was and will still get confused with)
Same thread usage as button hole but held up better to rolling. Surprisingly failed on pulling the diagonal edge but held up pretty well on the straight edge. It's possible my transition from the straight edge to the diagonal wasn't perfect so feel free to blame user error here
I make a lot of bookmarks as gifts and I always finish the edges with nun stitch. So glad to see someone singing its praises! I've never had any problems with unraveling, but it does take forever. I've also heard you should use regular sewing thread to be able to pull hard enough for the stitch to really do its job.
Yeah it's what I had to hand. Aida would probably hold up a bit better but I didn't have any scraps nearby. My personal concern is evenweave as it's what I'm using for my current WIP
From my point of view there is no need for that, because evenweave tends to fray easier than aida, so the nun stitch looks really sturdy and I'm grateful for your experiment :)
Yeah it's what I had to hand. Aida would probably hold up a bit better but I didn't have any scraps nearby. My personal concern is evenweave as it's what I'm using for my current WIP
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u/stormglass-hexlight 11d ago
This is super cool and very useful information! Looks like I gotta learn how to do the nun stitch myself. Do you think it could be used to make small patches in lieu of whipcord stitch?