Simple Stitching

Jodie Chandler
23 minutes ago
5 min read

Wildflower Lesson #10:

There is something quietly beautiful about making a stitch by hand.

You push the needle through the paper, pull the thread gently behind it, then bring it back through again. One stitch. Then another.

You can’t really rush it.

And perhaps that is part of its charm.

So much of our lives encourage us to move quickly.

Finish the thing.

Get to the next thing.

Work out where we’re going before we’ve even had a chance to notice where we are.

Stitching asks something different of us.

It asks us to stay with what is right in front of us.

One small stitch at a time.

Wildflower Lesson #10 is Simple Stitching, part of our first collection, Foundations & Beautiful Beginnings.

And while we’re learning a lovely little technique for adding texture and handmade detail to our journals, I think there’s something else we can learn here too.

We don’t always have to see the whole path.

Sometimes we just need to make the next stitch.

Sometimes the simplest stitches hold the most meaning

I love handmade journals because you can see the hands that made them.

The torn edge that isn’t quite straight.

The wrinkle in an old piece of paper.

The slightly uneven stitching.

The tiny knot tucked behind a page.

These are the things that give a journal its character.

And simple stitching is such a beautiful way to bring more of that handmade feeling into your pages.

You don’t need to know how to sew.

You don’t need a sewing machine.

And you certainly don’t need perfectly even stitches.

A needle, some thread, a piece of paper or fabric and a willingness to have a play is enough.

Your stitches might wander a little.

One might be longer than the others.

You may even have to pull one out and start again.

That’s okay.

We aren’t creating factory-made pages here.

We’re making something with our hands.

And those little imperfections are part of the story.

What is Simple Stitching?

Simple stitching is exactly what it sounds like — using basic hand stitches to add detail, texture or attach elements to your journal pages.

You might stitch around the edge of a piece of fabric, run a line of thread across a page, make a few little crosses or use stitching to hold together layers of paper and ephemera.

Think of the thread as another mark-making tool.

Instead of reaching for a pen or paintbrush, you’re drawing with thread.

And there really aren’t many rules.

Materials

You only need a few simple things:

A journal page, paper, tag or piece of fabric
Needle
Embroidery thread, cotton or fine twine
Scissors
Paper piercer or awl if you have one
A small piece of cardboard or old book underneath your paper while making holes
Optional fabric scraps, lace, ephemera or botanicals to layer into your page

If you’re stitching through paper, pre-piercing your holes can make the process much easier and help prevent delicate paper from tearing.

How to Create Simple Stitching

1. Choose where you’d like to stitch. Start with a piece of paper, fabric, tag or journal page. You might stitch along an edge, around a shape or straight across the page.

2. Make your holes. If you’re working with paper, gently pierce a row of holes before you begin. Keep them fairly spaced, but don’t worry about measuring everything perfectly.

3. Begin stitching. Thread your needle and try a simple running stitch — up through one hole, down through the next. Continue along your chosen line.

4. Add a little play. Once you feel comfortable, try a few crosses, tiny X stitches, stitched borders or little clusters. Let yourself experiment rather than trying to get it “right”.

5. Finish your thread. Tie your thread gently at the back or tuck the ends between layers.

Then stand back and notice what those few little stitches have added to your page.

That’s it.

Simple.

Handmade.

Beautifully imperfect.

Ways to Use Simple Stitching

Once you begin adding stitching to your journals, you may find yourself wanting to stitch everything!

Try it to:

Stitch around journal page edges
Attach fabric or lace
Secure pieces of ephemera
Add borders around collage elements
Decorate pockets and tuck spots
Embellish handmade tags
Add little crosses or decorative marks
Stitch around photographs or treasured papers
Join layered papers together
Add texture to journal covers

You can also combine stitching with techniques we’ve already explored in the Wildflower Lessons — imagine a little dusty-pink thread running across tea-dyed paper, holding down a piece of vintage paper or sitting alongside a scrap of lace.

Each lesson becomes another little tool you can bring into your own creative language.

Why It Matters

There’s a rhythm to stitching.

Push the needle through.

Pull the thread.

Pause.

Begin again.

When our hands are doing something repetitive and gentle, we have an opportunity to slow down and notice.

We don’t need to hurry towards the finished page.

We can simply be with the stitch we’re making now.

And I think life asks this of us sometimes too.

We can become so focused on the finished picture — where we should be, what we should have achieved, what comes next — that we forget we only ever live this moment.

Perhaps we don’t need the whole plan today.

Perhaps we only need the next small step.

One stitch at a time.

Soul Inquiry

When you’ve finished stitching, stay with your page for a few more minutes.

Notice the lines you’ve made. Notice where they’re even and where they wander. Notice how all those individual stitches have quietly become something larger.

Then open your journal and explore whichever of these questions calls to you:

Where in my life could I slow down and take things one stitch at a time?

What am I holding together right now that matters to me?

What stories do I want to stitch into my future?

How does creating with my hands help me feel more grounded and present?

What would it feel like to trust the process without needing to know exactly how everything will turn out?

There’s no correct answer.

Just notice what comes.

Your Wildflower Journey

LEARN — Explore simple hand stitching and discover how thread can become another creative tool.

CREATE — Add a few stitches to paper, fabric or a journal page. Let them be imperfect.

COLLECT — Add Wildflower Lesson #10 to your Wildflower Lesson Library.

REFLECT — Spend a little time with the Soul Inquiry prompts and notice what the rhythm of stitching brings up for you.

SHARE — If you’d like to, share your stitched page or journal detail and inspire another woman to pick up her needle and have a play.

BLOOM — Carry this technique with you. Combine it with the papers, fabrics and layers you’ve already created and make it your own.

Find Your 15

You don’t need an afternoon free to make something meaningful.

Just Find Your 15.

Make yourself a cuppa.

Choose a journal page.

Thread your needle.

Then spend fifteen minutes making simple stitches.

No complicated project.

No expectation that you need to finish anything.

No pressure to make your stitches straight.

Just fifteen minutes of thread passing through paper, your hands moving slowly and your attention returning to what is right in front of you.

And if your mind begins racing ahead?

Come back to the stitch.

This one.

Then the next.

And the next.

Because perhaps creating a journal page and creating a life aren’t always about knowing exactly what the finished thing will look like.

Sometimes we find our way as we go.

One small, imperfect, beautiful stitch at a time.

Add Wildflower Lesson #10 — Simple Stitching to your Wildflower Lesson Library, then Find Your 15 and see where the thread takes you. Join our FREE library for the Full lesson plan.