Time for another 100 Stitches Plus post! I just learned how to do this beautiful filling stitch called the Burden Stitch.
I used perle cotton floss in three different colors. The bright blue is DMC no. 995, the pink is DMC no. 956 and the light blue is a DMC color variations no. 4022.
The Burden Stitch is a filling stitch. It is composed of Straight Stitches that are laid horizontally and held in place by vertical Straight Stitches.
I used the bright blue floss for the horizontal stitches:
I came up through the fabric:
pulled the floss all the way through and went back into the fabric to the right of where my floss first emerged.
I pulled the floss all the way through and that formed the first horizontal Straight Stitch.
I made five more of these stitches - equally spaced:
Now for the vertical Straight Stitches. These will be done with the color variations blue and the pink flosses.
I started with the color variations blue floss. These stitches will be holding the laid horizontal Straight Stitches in place. I first came up through the fabric above the first horizontal Straight Stitch:
and went back into the fabric right above the next horizontal Straight Stitch:
I pulled the floss all the way through to form the first vertical Straight Stitch.
Next, I formed evenly spaced vertical Straight Stitches all along the horizontal Straight Stitch.
Next, I used the pink floss. Notice that I am starting this by coming up through the fabric right below the top horizontal Straight Stitch:
I went back into the fabric right above the third horizontal Straight Stitch:
I kept making these vertical Straight Stitches, alternating the floss colors until I had covered all the horizontal Straight Stitches:
This is a simple stitch to do. I imagine it would be very effective at filling in large open spaces in embroidery motifs. I also think it would be nice to use as a border:
Here is a look at the underside of this stitch:
I learned this stitch from the excellent book Embroidery Stitches by Mary Webb.