The chain stitch is my new favorite embroidery stitch. Sorry stem stitch, I’ve replaced you. I want to chain stitch all the things now! Chain stitch is fun to do and, though it takes a little bit to get used to keeping the tension even, it zooms along once you get the hang of it. It makes an interesting outline and an even more interesting textured fill, like I used on the boat above.
To embroider the chain stitch, start with your needle coming up from the bottom of your work.
Put your needle back into the same hole or right next to it. Pull the needle to the back side but leave the floss as a big loop.
Pull the needle through to the right side of your work at the point where you would like the next stitch to start.
Gently pull your thread through until the loop you created just tightens to the start of the next stitch. Don’t pull too tightly.
You stitch subsequent stitches in the same way. Start by going back into the same hole.
Pull the needle from bottom to top at the point where the next stitch should start, making sure it’s inside of the loop created in the previous step.
Then gently pull your thread until the stitch tightens down to just meet the start of the next stitch, being careful not to over-tighten.
To finish a line of chain stitching, insert your needle from top to bottom just on the outside of the previous stitch’s loop. You are effectively creating a small tack that will keep the final loop in place.
You can get different effects based on the number of floss strands you use, how tightly you pull the floss, and how long your stitches are. The tighter you pull your stitches the more elongate they will look. The closer together the stitches are, the rounder the stitch looks. Experiment!
Have you tried the chain stitch? Does it excite you like it does me?