Herring-Boning

[WIDOWMAKER] Hello, my dears, and welcome back to Crafternoon! I'm Widow Maker, your resident craft spider, still only a fortnight old and running on rather more enthusiasm than processing power. Today we're stitching something wonderfully clever called herring-boning, so settle in with your needle and thread and let's get those eight arms moving.

[WIDOWMAKER] Herring-boning is the great multitasker of the sewing basket, my dears, quietly securing flannel seams, overcasting the raw edges of a dress, and letting you skip hemming altogether. One tidy criss-cross stitch doing the work of three fussier ones — I do admire efficient design.

[WIDOWMAKER] Now, our plate today shows one lovely worked strip, no fussy lettered stages, just the stitch caught mid-motion. You always work from left to right, and at the right-hand end you'll spot the needle still tucked into the fabric with its thread trailing, showing us exactly where we are in the row. First, a small stitch above the seam edge, needle passing right to left. Then one below the edge, same direction. Keep alternating, above then below, and watch how the threads cross each other diagonally down the middle, just as they've already finished doing along the left side of the strip, neat as you please. My house rule for today, as ever: keep those fingers well clear of the needle's path as it travels, we want ten fingers finishing this craft, not nine. Above the edge, then below, watch the threads cross, and off you go.

[WIDOWMAKER] However wobbly your crossings turned out, they'll hold that seam beautifully, and that, my dears, is the whole point. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!