Today, we’re going to enjoy a bit of Stitch Fun – musing about a stitch, wondering about its name, and showing you how it’s worked.
Stitch Fun! is this series of stitching tutorials here on Needle ‘n Thread. In the series, we explore different embroidery stitches mostly as combinations or composites, used in different ways and offering a wide range of possibilities for further exploration.
I started the Stitch Fun! series back in 2012, and the list of tutorials is fairly decent. Not exhaustive by any means, but a good list to explore interesting stitches, combinations, composites, and techniques.
The whole point of the series has always been to have fun exploring stitches.
Today’s stitch exploration doesn’t really have a proper name that I can find. It’s a combination of two layers of herringbone, one of which is laced into the other. So maybe we could call it layered herringbone or something to that effect.
It came about because a reader sent me a question about a short video that she found online, where the stitch demonstrated in the video was called “double herringbone.”
The video had no voiceover or explanation of anything, and it was moving at a rapid clip to fit the whole thing into 30 seconds or less – and… well, you know how they are!
She couldn’t find any way to replicate what she saw, because any search for double herringbone brought up a complete different looking stitch.
It’s hard to explain in writing what’s happening with a stitch and how it’s happening, so I decided to take some photos and do the whole Over-Explaining Thing about the stitch that was demonstrated in the video.
So, here we go…
In the photo above, the upper, open band is your typical herringbone stitch. The band underneath it is what we are going to explore.
If you’re unfamiliar with the herringbone stitch, you can find a tutorial for it here.
In this photo above, you can see the typical double herringbone stitch, which consists of two passes of herringbone stitch, the second return pass interweaving with the first pass in an over-under sequence as each stitch is completed.
Double herringbone stitch adds an extra level of complexity to the stitch. It can be a very interesting stitch – great for decorative borders, a nice addition to band samplers, excellent for embellishing crazy quilt seams – but you have to think ahead when you work it, so that the over-under and under-over sequences work out to a nice woven effect.
You can find a tutorial for double herringbone stitch here.
If you’d like to learn even more about herringbone, this 36-page Stitch Play Printable on interlaced herringbone stitch takes double herringbone even farther with a layer of interlacing. We explore bands, frames, circular frames and more, worked with interlaced herringbone. By the time you make your way through the printable, you’ll be a master of herringbone stitch!
But let’s talk about this notion of a layered herringbone stitch.
In the short video that my reader sent me, the stitcher worked a very wide herringbone band. In reality, stitches that long (they were probably an inch or longer) would never maintain stability in any finished piece of embroidery.
Over the herringbone stitch band, she then worked another layer of herringbone, but she didn’t pass through the fabric. Instead, she worked the new layer of herringbone over the foundation layer of very long stitches, catching the new thread around the intersections of the previous layer of herringbone.
The whole approach was definitely more of a “laced” herringbone technique, but because the movement of the “lacing” (where she’s passing under the previous herringbone stitches without picking up fabric) was the same movement as a herringbone stitch, I suppose this is why she called the stitch a double herringbone.
I’m calling it layered herringbone, because it is another herringbone stitch line effectively layered on top of the herringbone foundation, without picking up any fabric. And while it is a laced stitch, to call it laced herringbone could lead to confusion, because laced herringbone is already a fairly common approach to embellishing herringbone stitch.
Step-by-Step Technique
So, to demonstrate, using six strands of floss in the needle, I’m beginning with a solid herringbone stitch band, with the herringbone worked close together so that there’s not any noticeable space between the stitches. This is called “closed herringbone.” Notice that there’s no space between the stitches, like there is in the top band of herringbone.
Next to the foundation of closed herringbone, I brought up a new thread (lighter green – still six strands), just to the left of the foundation band.
For this next layer of herringbone, I’m going to work on top of the foundation band, lacing under the foundation stitches without picking up any fabric.
I’ve brought my new thread to the front on the left side of the band, and I’m following the same movement of the herringbone stitch by crossing up to the top, passing the needle back under the intersection of the first set of herringbone stitches, and pulling the thread through.
Then, moving forward, I’ll cross down to the base of the band, take the needle back under the next intersection in the foundation threads and out to the front of the band, and pulling through.
Then, back to the upper intersection towards the top of the band, passing backwards under that intersection and out between the stitches, and pulling through.
The movement is exactly the same movement as working the herringbone stitch, without picking up fabric. Instead, the “intersections” of the foundation row provide the structure for holding the new layer of herringbone in place.
The whole lacing process is infinitely easier if you use a tapestry needle with a blunt tip, so that you don’t snag the foundation stitches.
If you don’t have a tapestry needle, you can stitch with the needle eye-first, as shown in the photo above.
This is what a very rigid, straight band of “layered herringbone” looks like, when complete.
Once you get the movement of the stitch down and practice how the top layer works into the foundation, you can use the technique in different ways to fill relatively small and narrow shapes (leaves and petals come to mind), to work meandering decorative bands, maybe to create stylized, textured trunks and branches – all of these things beg for experimentation!
So there’s some Stitch Fun! for you!
And that, my friends, is my take on a “layered” herringbone stitch. Of course, I’m open to calling it anything – and maybe it’s already got a name – but let’s not call it “double herringbone,” because it’s not double herringbone.
More Stitches, More Fun!
Here on Needle ‘n Thread, you can find a whole bunch of stitch tutorials to help you get into the fun of exploring stitches!
Here’s an index of how-to video tutorials, with over 75 stitch videos for your learning pleasure.
And the Stitch Fun Index offers step-by-step photo tutorials on an even wider range of stitches, combinations, composites, and techniques.
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