Fly stitch

What it is

Fly stitch is a loop of thread caught at its lowest point by a small straight stitch, so it settles into a V or, with a longer tack, a Y. It is the most adaptable of the looped stitches: the depth of the V, the length of the tack and the spacing between them change it from a leaf vein to a fern to an open filling.

How to work it

1. Come up at the top left of the V.
2. Go down at the top right, level with where you came up, leaving the thread loose on the surface.
3. Come up at the point of the V, with the needle inside the loose loop.
4. Pull the loop down until the V is the shape you want.
5. Tack it with a small straight stitch over the point — short for a V, longer for a Y.
6. To work a row, start the next one where the last tack ended so the shapes nest into a column.

What it is good for

• Leaves: a column of fly stitches down a stem is a fern in about a minute.
• Leaf veins and feather barbs.
• Open filling — spaced out, it gives texture without weight.
• The calyx under a flower, where the V shape is already the right shape.

What goes wrong

• Pulling the loop flat, which turns the V into one straight line.
• Uneven tack lengths in a row — it turns a tidy column into a ragged one.
• Setting the point too deep. Past about two-thirds of the width, the arms cross rather than meet.

By the numbers

Width of the V

4 mmadjustable 2.5 mm – 7 mm

Spacing along the line

5 mmadjustable 3 mm – 14 mm

Stitches in this example

18counted from the drawing above, not estimated

Floss it would take

15 cmworking thread to cut, at 2 strands

A fly stitch line lays spaced V’s at a 4 mm band and 5 mm spacing by default, with the tack running 0.35 of the band. Both are sliders, and the band maximum is set so the arms of the V stay inside the 9 mm real-stitch cap.

Watch it worked

Hand-picked from YouTube. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.