100 Stitches - Buttonhole Insertion Stitch

This interesting stitch is the buttonhole insertion stitch. I am starting a brand new section of 100 Stitches - the Insertion Stitches category.

This stitch is for joining two pieces of fabric.  I practiced this stitch several times with disappointing results.  I had such a hard time keeping the two pieces of fabric the same distance apart while stitching them together.  I kept looking at the example in 100 Stitches and finally noticed that they recommended going back to the front of the book and reading the special instruction notes on Insertion Stitches before working them!  The special instructions are to stitch your fabric to a piece of stiff paper and then work your stitches.
For my demonstration, I just turned under the raw edge of the fabric 1/2" to act as a hem.  If I were making a finished product, I would actually hem each piece of fabric:

I used this green card stock and pinned my fabric in place at about 1/2" apart.   Then I stitched the pieces of fabric to the paper, leaving the folded edge free:

Next, I drew some guide lines.  I drew mine about 1/4" in from the folded over edge.  This line will help me keep my stitches the same size!

This stitch is really simple.  It is sets of four buttonhole stitches worked alternately on the two pieces of fabric.  Just start the first buttonhole stitch at one end - I hid my knot under the folded edge:

I stitched the buttonhole stitch, first on the left side:

and when I had four done, I moved to the fabric on the right side and did four stitches:

When those four were finished, back to the fabric on the left:

and so on until the two pieces of fabric were joined:

Then I took the joined fabric off the card stock and washed out the marker lines:

Beautiful! I think this stitch would be perfect for joining panels on a table runner or table cloth.  I can't wait to try it on a real project. 

This stitch is number 98 on the 100 Stitches list.  The floss I used is DMC pearl cotton color variations #4060.