Reverse chain stitch: seamless squares and circles

Here are a couple of tricks :)

I actually already shared similar tips in the post 6 tips for better chain stitch but I didn't realize that I did that for regular chain stitch and the reversed one has its own peculiarities. However, you might be surprised that solutions are basically the same, except that the order of work is a bit different!

So let's dig in.

If you don't remember how to work reversed chain stitch you can refresh your memory in this post.

So, here we worked a line of reversed stitch and came up to the corner. What do we do now if we want the corner to look seamless and sharp?

The most obvious way would be to continue stitching the same way which means sliding your needle under the previous stitch.

However, it might leave you with a corner that is not as sharp. Even though the chain is continued seamlessly.

So, what I prefer doing in such cases, is to anchor the outer “wing” of the chain loop with a tiny stitch.

It makes the corner more apparent.

But then we have another problem. We completed the last side and now the point where we started the square and finished it stands out too much.

So what we can do now is to start a stitch from the very first one and slide the needle under the last one.

And then secure the outer wing of the chain loop with a tiny stitch again.

The corners are clear and direction of chain stitching is continuing naturally. The tiny stitches kind of stand out in my case, and when I look at it now, I think I should have aligned them better. That's just a draft though, but you can be more careful in your work than me :)

Now, as for circles, the way to work a seamless joint here is basically the same.

Start your stitch in the very first one and slide the needle under the last one.

There is no need for extra anchoring stitches here because we don't need any sharp corners here.

So, here are some new tricks for you to use! Have fun with chain stitch! :)