The Backside of Your Stitching




The front side of the above stitching for comparison.
Let's talk about the thing that is, for many of us, our dirty little secret...our backside.

There is a rising trend in the online cross stitching community of showing the backside of your work. The vast majority of backsides being shown are pristine and often look nearly as delightful as
the front sides. But for a lot of stitchers, their backsides looks less like a replica of the front, and more like a collection of floss that an angry cat rummaged through.

So what should your backside look like and how much does it really matter? Let's turn things over and take a look.



I want to begin with an important message for all you beginners out there.
Let's face it, beginners' backsides are usually a mess. And rightfully so! You're still learning how this whole process works and for most beginners, it's hard enough just to get your stitches in the right place that the last thing on your mind is keeping your backside neat and orderly. Messy traveling and unnoticed knots tend to be the main culprits. And while these are relatively easy things to remedy, I don't want you to worry about them for a single moment. Enjoy the process of learning a new craft and once you are more comfortable with the basics of cross stitch, come on back here and continue reading about how you can improve your backside. 

Is the backside of your stitching important?

The answer to this question will vary greatly between stitchers. Some will insist that your back needs to be kept in perfect order, while others are proud to show their back in full disarray.

Like most things, there is truth to both sides.

Most experienced stitchers tend to have a neater back. Does that mean that if your back is messy you are a less skilled stitcher. No. A lot of what happens on the backside of your work comes down to nothing other than personal preference. Sure, there are things that are universally acknowledged as being bad. But there are a lot of backside practices that really don't affect the front side of your work and therefore are things that should only be worried about if it is, for whatever reason, important to you.

The backside of your stitching is very much a, "To each their own," situation and whether you like to ensure that every piece of floss is perfectly placed on both sides of your work or not, your opinion is the only one that matters because your work is no one's but your own.

Now, that being said, there are definitely some things that happen on your backside that can, in fact, effect the quality of your finished work. For example, if you have a terribly messy backside with plenty of knots and gathered threads, it can affect the way that the finished piece will present itself when framed. If there is too big of a gathering in one spot on the back, that area will then be unable to sit as flat as the other areas of the fabric, causing a bubbly and unprofessional looking finish.

As far as how to get a neater back, it is important to note that the more you stitch and the more experience you gain, the neater your back will likely become on its own. As mentioned above, most messy backs come from excessive traveling, poor anchoring of threads, and a failure to remove knots from the floss. Most experienced stitchers simply don't have these problems because they've learned stitching techniques, often for other purposes, that end up preventing a messy back.

 I can honestly say that I never think about my backside, except perhaps when making a decision about traveling across certain unstitched areas. But even with my complete indifference to my backsides, they still come out relatively orderly and this comes down, 100%, to implementing good stitching practices.

At the end of the day, while it's important to continue learning and growing within your craft, it is also important not to compare your work to others' on social media. While we have all felt backside envy at one point or another, if your backside doesn't bother you, then you should continue not to worry about it and focus on what is important to you and your stitching and enjoy viewing the work of other skilled stitchers from afar.

What are some of the biggest problems that cause messy backsides and what are good stitching practices that will make your back neater?

Here are some common problems that occur on your backside and the good stitching practices that will automatically make your back a little neater, if you so desire.

Anchoring your threads:
Poor anchoring can lead to increased tangles and mess.
When I first started stitching I was very worried about my floss becoming unanchored after stitching and having the whole thing come apart. This led me to believe that I needed to leave long strands of floss on the backside to be anchored by other stitches. What this did in reality was cause an absolute mess that was completely unnecessary.

Most pieces of cross stitch are going to be displayed as art rather than something that will be frequently handled. This means that any sort of pulling and tugging on the stitches which could lead to anchors coming undone, is highly unlikely.

When anchoring your threads, I recommend running your needle under three or four stitches and then cutting the floss off right at the last anchoring stitch, leaving nothing loose that could get caught up while working the rest of the area.

Utilizing loop start will also dramatically clean up your backside, as it will eliminate half of your traditional anchoring points. Plus, it is a joy to work with! To learn how to use loop start, click here.

Traveling:

Traveling is the process of skipping over spaces to continue using the same strand of floss to complete separated stitches of the same color.

Some stitchers refuse to travel because it is messy and can lead to bunching if there are too many travel crossings in one area.

Is traveling bad? No. Do I travel? You betcha! A lot!

I would find it incredibly frustrating and tedious if I had to start a new strand of floss every time I needed to skip a few spaces just to make four or five stitches. This is just me. I lack a certain level of patience in my crafting. My theory is, so long as the traveling is not excessive and does not cause any bunching, then I am not too worried about it. Of course, I do not travel across really long distances, but I have no problem with a good sized jump here and there.

There is, however, one very important rule when traveling. When stitching on a light fabric, never travel across what will be an unstitched area with a dark floss. If this is done, the travel will likely be visible from the front of the fabric and can be a real eyesore on your finished piece.

Also note that the neatness of a back is going to depend heavily on what the design is. If you are working on a piece with a lot of confetti stitching, you are going to have a much messier back than someone who is working on a design with blocks of color.

Overall, traveling is a personal preference. So long as your travels aren't bunching up on top of each other, traveling is the one part of a messy back that I really don't mind and doesn't seem to make a difference in your finishing quality.

Knots:

Knots happen all the time no matter how many years you have been practicing this craft. The difference is what you do with those knots.

I know that knots can be frustrating. In fact, sometimes stitchers get so frustrated by this frequent problem that they give up stitching altogether.

The most important part about dealing with knots is to catch them early. The moment you start to feel resistance when pulling your thread, stop what you are doing and address the situation. The more you pull on tangling floss, the harder it is going to be to resolve the issue. If you pull too hard, your only choice may be to let the knot remain or end your floss and start a new one. So it's just all around easier to stop and check out the situation the moment you start to feel your floss fighting you, rather than hope it's nothing and keep tugging away.

Knots can often go unnoticed until it's too late to fix them.
There are times, however, that knots can be very hard to detect. If they happen close to the fabric on the backside, you may not notice they are there at all until you turn your work over. To help monitor my floss on the backside while stitching, I like to hold my non-stitching hand against the backside with my fingers spread apart much like the Vulken salute from Star Trek. I then work my stitches between my fingers so that they can detect what is going on with the floss while it's out of my view. If my floss has stopped pulling through the fabric, but my fingers on the backside can still feel loose or bunched-up floss, I know that there is a problem.

Even for the most experienced and careful stitchers, sometimes unknown knots happen and if it's small and you've already stitched well passed it, it may not be worth taking out all of your work to fix.

The key is to avoid leaving large conglomerates of tangled floss on the backside because this is what will affect your finishing.

As far as preventing knots in the first place, there are some things that you can do. Most knots are caused because your floss is twisted. Frequently dropping your needle--holding your work up and allowing the floss and needle to dangle freely--will untwist your floss. Railroading your stitches also helps with twisting. You can find directions on how to railroad here. You may also benefit from slowing down the speed of your stitching. Pulling floss too quickly through the fabric causes it to get bunched up and knot. By slowing down even a little, it can help keep the floss from gathering up.

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