Wednesday, January 20, 2010

100 Stitches - Heavy Chain Stitch

Before I show off my latest stitch, I want to show a picture of this book - I have been enjoying looking at this old sewing and embroidery book from my grandma. It was published in 1949. It is a soft bound book and the price on the cover says 25 cents. Besides profiling embroidery stitches, it covers sewing basics, pattern alterations, fabric facts and a very handy needle and thread guide!
And now back to the on-going struggle :) through the 100 Stitches book. The latest stitch is the heavy chain stitch. Here it is in one look from start to finish:
The first step is to come up through the fabric and back down making a small vertical stitch. Then come up again a little below the bottom of the vertical stitch and pass the needle under the stitch without grabbing any fabric - just slide the needle under the stitch.

Next, go back down through the fabric right where you came up. Then
come back up a little lower...
and again, pass the needle under the FIRST vertical stitch. Again, don't grab any fabric with the needle, just pass under the stitch. Now go back down where you just came up and then come up again a little lower and this third stitch and every stitch after always pass under the two preceding loops - until you have a nice "heavy chain stitch" :)
This stitch is very easy and very fun to do - I used six strands of dmc #907 floss. I love this color! This is stitch #44 in the 100 Stitches book. It is in the "Linked stitches" section.

2 comments:

Libby said...

Love the stitch and the color! So Pretty!
Libby

Mahalakshmi said...

Recently I came across this stitch in Stitching fingers and simply fell in love with this.This looks like a braid.