Hand Stitching Long Stitch Line

[venator]

So I'm trying to hand stitch a belt and four tries in my threads keep getting tangled beyond saving, there's just too much thread to keep tidy. How do people deal with this?

I could stitch in shorter sections but that will cause the stitching to br uneven do I'd rather not. Thoughts?

[kevinp]

to stitch around the whole belt dont try to do it with one length of thread it will tangle as you found out. sew it with shorter lengths as far as you can spread your arms apart.it will probably take three or four lengths.

[brettra]

Are you saddle stitching?

This is a good time to find out how strong the saddle stitch holds. I run my stitch until I run out of thread then start my next thread length one stitch back from the area I just stitched. After going over the end run of the last stitch, I'll cut the ends off the first stitch series that I had just ended.You don't want to cut your first run until after doing this as you may need to snug up the ends after running the new thread through.

You'll end up with a stitch hole that has a doubled thread on top and bottom but this is not very noticeable and helps lock in the end of the next thread run as well. This is similar to back stitching on the last hole of a project.

Hope I made sense with the explanation.

[Tugadude]

"I could stitch in shorter sections but that will cause the stitching to br uneven do I'd rather not. Thoughts"

I don't agree, multiple lengths will not lead to the stitching being uneven. It would, however, lead to start/stop points as described above. Those should not be overly noticeable. Plan the points of transition out so as to make them happen in areas not as visible when wearing. For example, well away from the pointed end. If you put one near the buckle, it gets covered by the pointed end when worn.

BTW, many folks use no more than 6 feet or less at a time. I've used more and it is possible, but tedious for sure.

[byggyns]

I just finished my first belt - for myself, and I did it in 4 sections of thread. I wear 40" pants and stand 5'7", so I have a rather short arm span for my waist size.

My joints are at the buckle side, near the center on either side, and I do have a joint near the tip. I kept it a few inches back from the tip, but it's still in the billet section with the buckle holes.

I overlapped one full stitch, and then took the thread on the front of the belt to the back side- a half stitch. That way, all of the thread ends are on the inside, and not visible from the outside of the belt. I cut them short & melt the ends: used poly thread. On the outside, the stitch line just appears slightly thicker at the overlapped areas.

[venator]

Thanks folks, this helped quite a bit I also picked up Al Stohlman's book on hand stitching. I try to avoid it but the machine can't do it all.

[King's X]

I was just going to mention Al Stohlman's books, but by now you get it.