A few nights ago I showed double back stitch and the pattern that double back stitch looks like on the back of the fabric. When I showed Sharon I commented that I had actually stitched the back pattern from the front side and that it felt like I was stitching a two sided Stem Stitch, Sharon pointed out that it was actually Closed Herringbone, which was obvious to me as soon as she said it and at the same time I realized that I have always known double back stitch as shadow embroidery which is what it is when done on a sheer fabric so that the closed herringbone on the back can show through the fabric…The next week I found a stitch, in The Batsford encyclopaedia of Embroidery Stitches, called side stem stitch which looks like 2 very close rows of back stitch…The way that a single stitch can have 2 or more names and in other cases a single name can be used for 2 different stitches makes nameing stitches difficult which is why I prefer to think of stitches as variations on the family groupings such as buttonhole or even more broadly as straight, looped and knoted stitches.
Shadow Embroidery, which I now know as double back stitch, was the first embroidery stitch that I ever learnt when I embroidered my initials on the front of a half slip petticoat.
To do a sample of Shadow embroidery on my sampler I cut a hole in the linen and turned the edges under to expose the lining which is a sheer fabric.
I was delighted with how well the double pekinese stitch worked to make a frame for the mushrooms.
|