Thursday, June 17, 2010

100 Stitches - Portuguese Stem Stitch

The stalk on this sunflower is stitched using the beautiful Portuguese Stem Stitch!

Doesn't this stitch make such a beautiful detailed line?:

And from every angle!
This stitch is the latest stitch I have learned on the 100 Stitches project. I am posting some demonstration pictures to show the stitch step by step.
I am using dmc #4180 variegated pink perle cotton, a #24 chenille needle and I am stitching on quilting weight 100% cotton fabric. The first step is to come up through your fabric and line everything up like you are making a stem stitch: Pull the floss through to make a stitch and then position your floss perpendicular to your stitch and stitching line:
Now bring your needle under the stitch you just made. Slide the needle under the stitch, don't pick up any fabric:
You are just wrapping the floss around the stitch. Do this twice!
Now take the next stitch just like your first stem stitch:
Notice that the floss from both stitches is going to have a small side by side overlapping area:
You can really see the side by side overlapping area here:
This is important because now your are going to slide the needle under BOTH the first and second stitch in the side by side overlapping area:
Again, go under the stitches, not catching the fabric, just wrapping the floss around the stitches - and again do the wrapping twice:
Just continue this same way along your stitching line:
Until "parabéns!" you are doing the Portuguese Stem Stitch!
This is such a beautiful stitch - I think it is almost as beautiful as the scroll stitch! This stitch looks complicated but is really very easy. I am surprised at how quickly you can stitch with it too. This stitch is #22 and is in the flat stitches section of 100 Stitches.

12 comments:

Libby said...

Beautiful as always!! Pretty stitch!

My 1st Bambina ! said...

Very nice !!!
I tried the portuguese knotted stitched a while back on a sampler I was working on. It is a lovely stitch and fun to stitch !

Kim said...

Thank you Libby and Monika!

Nichole Dominguez said...

I love this! I'm going to try it today:)

Kim said...

Hi Nichole :) I am SO glad you are going to try this stitch! I think you will really enjoy it - let me know how it goes!

Denise Felton said...

Nice tutorial! I just put a link to this post on my blog. I hope it brings you a few extra clicks.

Denise
http://needlework.craftgossip.com

Kim said...

Wow - Thank you and thanks so much for the mention!

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

This is gorgeous and so well explained. I just clicked over from Craft Gossip. I would love to link to this if you didn’t mind.

Kim said...

Hi Rachel - Thank you! Yes please feel free to link to this :)

Anonymous said...

I am going to try this!!! YEAH!!!I love you teaching me new stitches!! And....step by step!!
Thanks Kim!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your clear explanation. I am stiching a design on an afghan I have made using the tunesian crochet technique and the basic stems of the flowers that will be stiched on to it is the Portuguese stem stich. Your explanation and photos are very clear.

Kim said...

Hello, thank you - this was a fun one to do. Your afghan project sounds beautiful!