Padded Satin Stitch Tutorial

Padded satin stitch is great for when you want to add an extra 3D effect to your stitching. And it's a cinch as well!

When you've outlined the shape to be satin stitched, either with a pen or stitching (like Julie showed in her post about satin stitch), simply fill in the shape with stitching before you satin stitch over the shape.

You can fill the shape with all kinds of stitches. Straight stitches, satin stitch or chain stitch for example. Chain stitch gives a lot of padding. But if you use this stitch to fill in, take care that the chain 'joins' do not all line up or you may get lumps or ridges showing through the satin stitching.

I know it's a bit difficult to tell these examples apart, but these are all done slightly differently. Clockwise from left: regular satin stitch with no stitched outline; satin stitch with stitched outline underneath; satin stitch padded with chain stitch; satin stitch padded with straight stitches.

I find that even just outlining the satin stitch before you start, will help raise it from the surface. If you're only doing very small areas in satin stitch then stitch outlining is probably all you need.

But for larger shapes, padding can be a good idea, because without padding the satin stitching may start to sink in the middle where it is unsupported by the outline.