NCERT Solutions for Class 5th The World Around Us Chapter 8 Crafting with Needle and Thread — Activity 7
Book page 140 Updated on2026-09-19
Q1.
Let us begin by learning the basic running stitch. 1. Take a piece of thread through a needle. Tie a knot at one end of the thread. 2. Start from the back of the cloth. Bring the needle up at Point A. 3. Push the needle down at Point B. 4. Bring it up at Point C, then down at Point D. 5. Keep going—up, down, up, down—in a straight line. 6. This is called a running stitch.
Answer
What you will get: a neat dotted line of stitches, just like the picture on page 140 — a short piece of thread showing on top, then a gap, then another short piece. Turn the cloth over and you see the opposite: thread where the gaps were, and gaps where the thread showed. The thread has been running in and out of the cloth.
How to do it:
Thread the needle and tie a knot at one end of the thread.
Hold the cloth flat. Push the needle up from the back at Point A. Pull until the knot stops at the back.
Push the needle down into the cloth at Point B, a little ahead of A. Pull the thread through. You now have your first stitch on top.
Bring the needle up again at Point C, a little ahead of B.
Push it down at Point D. That is your second stitch.
Carry on the same way — up, down, up, down — keeping to a straight line.
Try to keep every stitch and every gap the same length. That is what makes it look neat.
Finish at the back with two small stitches one on top of the other, and cut the thread.
The solid pieces are the thread you can see on top. The dotted curves are the same thread running along under the cloth.
Why it is called a running stitch: Because the thread simply runs in and out of the cloth without ever being knotted in the middle. It is the quickest stitch of all, and it is the first stitch every tailor learns. All the fancier stitches are built on top of it.
To make it neat: Draw a faint pencil line on the cloth first and stitch along it. Keep each stitch about as long as a grain of rice, and each gap the same. Do not pull the thread tight — if you do, the cloth gathers up and puckers.