Guilloche Stitch

 

I have learned a new stitch to add to my 100 Stitches Plus list.  The Guilloche Stitch.  

This stitch is described as a wide border stitch.  It is a composite stitch made up of three different stitches ~ the Stem Stitch, the Straight Stitch and the French Knot.  The Straight Stitches are then laced.   

For my demonstration, I used three different colors of floss.  Black, pink and gray.  I also used my ruler and water soluble marker to draw some guidelines to follow:

My guidelines are 0.75" apart:

The first step is to stitch the two guidelines with Stem Stitch. 

These two lines make up the outside borders.  Now for the Straight Stitches.  These are formed in equally spaced columns of three stitches each: 

Now these Straight Stitches are laced.  I used the pink floss for this step:

Lacing is really easy, just bring the needle up through the fabric:

pull all the way through and then slide the needle under the next set of Stem Stitches ~ notice the needle is not going back into the fabric but just sliding on top of the fabric and under the stitches:

When I got to the last set of Straight Stitches, I went back into the fabric.  That is one half of the lacing.  For the second half,

I turned my hoop upside down.  Then I brought my needle up through the fabric: 

and laced my way back to the beginning: 

At the end, I went back into the fabric and then secured my floss on the underside.

Now for the French Knots.  For these I used the gray floss:

One French Knot in each circle created by the lacing:

This is a look at the underside of this composite stitch ~ very tidy for all the detail going on above!

I really like this stitch and I especially love this color combination :)
The colors used are DMC 310 {black} DMC 318 {gray} and DMC 956 {pink}.  These are all perle cotton floss.

The Guilloche Stitch is from the book Embroidery Stitches by Mary Webb.