In sewing, basting or a tack stitch is to make a quick, temporary stitch intended to be removed. A basting stitch is essentially a straight stitch, sewn with long stitches and usually unfinished ends. The basting stitch is used for temporarily holding sandwiched pieces of fabric in place usually inserted on the outside of the area in which you will be sewing. Usually the stitch is removed after the piece is finished. Most often basting is used in quilting or embroidery.
How we Use Basting
Basting, while optional, lets us align and hold two pattern pieces together to prevent them from become misaligned while we sew them together. When you Build-A-Bryan, basting isn’t necessary but can be helpful.
After aligning two pattern pieces together, place a few straight stitches along the sew line near the placement of the push pin. We recommend basting with permanent stitches. When sewing the pattern pieces together, we suggest going right over top of your basting stitch and travel in the same holes.
Since we’re using Tyvek, we can also use standard transparent tape and wrap it from pattern side to pattern side around the edge. Tape should never be used on the finished side of Paper Bryan.
An alternative to basting is to leave the push pins in the fabric as you sew. Keep the push pins perpendicular to the fabric to keep things aligned. You can use transparent tape on the pattern side of the artwork to hold the pins in place if needed.