Tuesday, May 25, 2010

100 stitches - Coral Stitch

The next stitch I have learned on my 100 Stitches saga is the coral stitch. I used three strands of dmc floss - color number 995 - a beautiful electric blue! I stitched this with a #24 chenille needle on 100% cotton. This stitch is worked from right to left. First come up through the fabric and pull your floss to the left. Make sure it stays there! 100 Stitches suggests holding it down in place with your thumb.

The coral stitch is essentially a line of floss held down with tiny stitched knots. You can determine how far apart you want the knots for your decorative purposes. To make the first knot, go into the fabric and take a very small stitch by coming up under the laying down floss

Here is a larger view of what the position of everything should look like:

Now you pull your floss all the way through making sure the needle goes above the lower line of the floss "loop"
now pull the needle all the way through...
now pull to the left to form a knot!
Next, determine how far away you want the next knot and do the same setup again. Under:

through, over, and pull to the left!
keep going and to finish simply take your needle back down through the fabric right at the final knot.
Here is what my coral stitching looks like - heehee...I need a bit more practice before I use this in an actual project!
For me, this stitch is a hard one to make look even and neat. For some reason, I have trouble with the knotted stitches - it seems like right at the critical "knot forming" second when I am pulling the floss and seeing the knot form, something either in my pulling tension, pulling direction or needle position goes wrong and I come up with an uneven knot. I know it will get better with practice - it did with the bullion stitch :) This stitch is #54 and is in the knotted stitches section of 100 Stitches.

9 comments:

gina matarazzo said...

I am totally impressed that you made the commitment to do all these stitches! I received my copy of the book in the mail, and holy moly! The last ones in the book blew my mind! I doubt I'll ever even consider tackling some of those. I'm not that brave. You are FEARLESS! ;)

Leslie said...

I just found your blog and really enjoyed browsing. I love the stitch demos and wondered what sort of fabric you are stitching on? I really like the look of it. I will for sure be coming back!

Kim said...

Gina - thanks! I'm so glad you found this book -I keep looking at the back of it too and thinking uh-oh! You notice I haven't done any stitches from the "composite stitches" section...check out the "interlacing stitch" yikes!

Hello Wayside wanderer - I am so happy you found this blog! For my stitching demonstrations, I use 100% cotton fabric - it is "quilting weight" and I find it in the quilting section of the fabric store - I buy mine at Joannes. I try to find a nice even weave, if it is a tightly woven fabric, it can be hard to pull the needle through. Too loose of a weave doesn't have a nice crisp look. They have a lot to choose from - unfortunately, that fabric never seems to be on sale!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kim,
I found your blog via Craft Gossip...
How nice to discover this lovely place :D
Love your embroidery style :)

Kim said...

welcome aukjesatelier! Thank you so much for your lovely comment :)

Annie said...

Hi Kim...I found myself having the same problem with that coral stitch!...Actually, I had better "first try" luck with that ever intimidating bullion knot!...hahaha...go figure :D Annie

Kim said...

Annie - those knotted stitches! I only have five more to go in that category :)

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! Amy

Kim said...

Thanks Amy :)