25 December 2009

stem and outline stitches

We may as well start at the beginning with the most common and widely-used embroidery stitches—the stem (sometimes called crewel) and the outline. Both are used primarily for (you guessed it) stems and outlining and they are very similar in how they are worked. For stem stitch the thread is always kept below the needle; for outline it’s always kept above. They look pretty similar when completed, too.

stem+outline

To work the stem stitch bring the thread to the front at the left edge of your drawn line. With the thread below your needle, take the needle to the back about ¼ inch to the right and re-emerge at the point where your thread began.

stem_a


Pull the thread through. Repeat and continue along the line, keeping the tension even and the stitches the same length. Stitches that are close together make a tight line, ones that are farther away make a looser line.

stem_b

When you come to the end of the line, take the thread to the back for the last stitch but don’t re-emerge. Secure the thread with tiny back stitches or weave it back through the line before clipping any excess thread. On both of these stitches you’ll see an even row of backstitch on the wrong side of the material.

stem_c

And this is how it looks when finished:

stem_d

For the outline stitch, do the same thing but keep the thread above the needle.

outline_a

outline_b

This is how it looks when finished:

outline_c

Some worked examples:

stem stitch

stem stitch

Did you know that stem stitch is used extensively in redwork embroidery?

redwork

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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Priyadarshini said...

i know that this comment is really a long time after the post was made.....that rock-a-bye baby is really old.....my grandmum and it embroidered it on a pillow cover for me....and i am 31 now.....my mum says that she had them for ages.......she has a lot more...wee-willy winky, humpty dumpty and a lot more nursery rhymes....they are in a really frail condition tho

RGuadnolo said...

I'm a beginner, working on a felt Christmas stocking. I can manage the outline stitch on a straight line, or even a curve, but cannot reverse directions. I am trying to use the outline stitch on a line that is scalloped, and cannot figure out how to go in the opposite direction. Any help would be appreciated.

Rosemarie

janet said...

I'm not sure what you mean by reverse direction. Even with a scalloped line I work from left to right in the same direction. If you mean what happens when you get to the top of the curve, I sometimes skip to the next one if there's not enough room to take a tiny stitch at the top to preserve the point. I occasionally will switch between stem and outline stitch in a section with tight turns but I'd rather skip a few sections and have to go back over it. I'm sorry if I'm not understanding the situation; if we could do it in person it would be so much easier :)