Create Cells of a Honeycomb with the Honeycomb Stitch
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One of the littlest things in life that I love and appreciate so much are bees. With their cute fuzzy abdomens and soft buzzing about, they make sure the garden in my backyard grows plentiful.
We associate them with honey, of course, and with that includes their honeycombs, so I’m dedicating this honeycomb stitch tutorial to the bees!
The honeycomb stitch is the bee’s knees, and I think you’ll love it once you learn it. It’s not difficult to catch onto, but I don’t consider it a beginner’s stitch, mainly because it kind of piggy-backs of another stitch… the blanket stitch, so I would recommend learning that stitch first.
Also, if you start it with the blanket stitch and build the cells off of it, then it’s pretty straight-forward. But, if you were to fill in a shape other than something like a square, let’s say a hexagon, you may have to do a little creative thinking and decide what the best approach is to make sure the edges fit nicely into the space.
Ready to learn the honeycomb stitch? To make this embroidery stitch tutorial a bit easier to explain I’ve drawn guidelines and numbered the lines.
Step One
Start with the blanket stitch on line 1. Here’s a quick refresher if you need it (or head to my blanket stitch tutorial).
- Simply come up at A and return to the back at an angle, at B.
- Keep the stitch a little loose and come up at C, under the thread.
- Then pull it tight to form a right angle.
Repeat steps to create a row. If you prefer not to have a line across the top of your honeycomb stitch you can opt to use vertical straight stitches instead.
Step Two
Come up on line 3. This should start around halfway in from where the blanket stitch begins. Slide your needle under the first vertical stitch and pull through.
Step Three
Return to the back on line 4, about halfway in from the beginning of the 2nd blanket stitch. Keep the thread slightly loose and come back up directly above, on line 3. Pull through.
Here’s a little diagram with the steps which were just covered:
Repeat steps all the way across.
If you want to start your row with a vertical line, just add a straight stitch before adding the honeycomb stitch steps just covered.
Repeat the steps.
Isn’t that lovely? It’s totally possible to create this pattern of cells using just straight stitches but it would take you longer, and I think you’d lose some of the little details that make this stitch a bit more visually sophisticated. I find that this stitch keeps me from having to guess where each corner needs to be.
Use this beautiful embroidery stitch as a fill stitch, to create honeycombs, and even lace. I hope you love it!
Embroidery Video Tutorial
Here’s the video tutorial! Don’t forget to visit my Youtube channel and subscribe. Enjoy!