Good morning, and welcome to Part 3 of our current stitch-along here on Needle ‘n Thread, Twinkle, Twinkle: A Christmas Star Ornament!
We’re working our way through embroidering a lovely Christmas star ornament, step-by-step. If you’re just joining in, you’ll find all the previous installments of this stitch-along available here, in the Twinkle, Twinkle Project Index.
For members of the Needle ‘n Thread Community on Patreon, you’ve already received the PDF that covers all this information. I also dropped some video over on the membership site, for folks signed up as “Avid Stitchers.”
If you are interested in video instruction for this entire project but not interested in the monthly membership (it’s $5 for “Avid Stitcher” level), you can purchase access to the individual videos that you’d like to view. You’ll find the videos listed under the Twinkle, Twinkle Collection on my membership page. As the videos are published over there, they will be listed in that collection, and there will be an option to purchase access to the video. (Please note: the video instruction is not in the same order as the stitch-along published here.)
Today, we’re working two of the stitched bands on the star.
The first band is the outermost line, worked in whipped chain stitch.
For the chain stitch foundation, use three strands of 798 in the #8 crewel needle.
To Whip or Not To Whip?
When I first embroidered this, I wasn’t sure if I would indeed whip the chain stitch. When you whip a stitch, the whipped part of the stitch tends to hide the direction of the foundation chain stitch. If I wasn’t going to whip the stitch, I knew that I wanted the chain stitching on each point of the star to travel in the same direction, towards the outer tip.
To accomplish this, I worked a reverse chain stitch, from each tip down towards the center of the star.
If you’re not familiar with reverse chain stitch, you can find a step-by-step tutorial for it here.
Reverse Chain vs Chain Stitch – Use Either
Reverse chain stitch is apparently easier for some people to stitch, compared to regular chain stitch. I don’t really see that much of a difference between stitching the reverse chain and regular chain, personally, but I know it’s a personal preference.
Here, I’m demonstrating the foundation of the whipped chain stitch, embroidered with reverse chain, but you can just as easily use regular chain stitch. It does not matter what direction any of the chain stitches are traveling in, because the whipped stitching will hide the chain stitches completely.
You can find a tutorial for chain stitch here, if you need to brush up on it.
Reverse Chain Demonstrated
To work the reverse chain stitch on the points of the star, begin with a straight stitch at the tip of the star on the side that you’re about to chain stitch. This will be the anchor stitch for your reverse chain. It is the equivalent of the small stitch that you take over the last chain stitch in a regular chain stitch line, to end the chain stitch.
Come up on the design line below your straight stitch, a stitch-length away from it. For the chain stitches, I’m working about an 1/8″ long stitch. Strive for 1/8″ – 3/16″ long stitches. That’s about the right size for this sized project with this weight of thread.
Pass your needle under the straight stitch at the top of the line.
Take your needle and thread down into the fabric where you just emerged, to end the chain stitch. Pull gently. You want your chain stitches to be “plump” rather than pulled tightly into a line.
Now you’ll move down the design line a stitch-length away from the end of that first chain, and you’ll pass your needle and thread under the first chain, as shown above.
Continue as before, ending the chain in the same hole you just emerged from, and work your way down this side of the star’s point.
Then, to work the opposite side of the point of the star, return to the tip and start again with a straight stitch to use as your anchor, just as you did before.
Work your way down the tip to the inside angle.
The advantage of reverse chain is that your chain stitches on each point of the star will travel towards the tip, which looks pretty nice if you’re not whipping the chain stitch. If you are whipping the chain stitch, in truth, it doesn’t matter! Another advantage of reverse chain for some stitchers is that they can get a consistent chain stitch more easily. It really depends on what you’re used to.
The disadvantage of reverse chain is pretty apparent: You have to start and end your thread for each side of each point of the star.
Whip the Chain!
I ended up preferring the look of the whipped chain stitch on this project.
And so – thread two strands of 797 into the #26 tapestry needle, and whip the chain stitch all around the star.
If you are not familiar with whipping a stitch, take a look at this video for whipped backstitch.
No matter what stitch you are whipping (backstitch, chain stitch, stem stitch, running stitch…), the same concept applies: the needle and thread always pass in the same direction under each stitch (without picking up any fabric).
I usually pass from right to left, because I’m right handed. It doesn’t really matter which way you wrap the stitches, just as long as you are always consistently passing the needle under every chain stitch from the same direction.
So, to walk you through it:
Bring the needle up in the “elbow” of one of the open angles on the inside of the star, and begin whipping the chain stitch by passing the needle underneath each chain stitch, always passing in the same direction.
When you arrive back at where you started, take the needle and thread to the back of the fabric and end the thread. I usually end my thread in these situations by whipping it around the backs of a few stitches and working a small hitch knot before snipping the thread.
Beaded Cable Chain
Now, we’ll move to the third line in on the star, which we will work in beaded cable chain stitch.
If cable chain stitch is a new stitch for you, you can find a video tutorial for the un-beaded version here. Sometimes, it’s a good idea to practice a stitch without beads, to get the hang of the movement – and then try it with beads.
You’ll find a video tutorial for beaded cable chain stitch here, if you want to go straight to it.
Please Note: you’re skipping one line here, from the outside band of the star that you just worked, so you’ll have a line between this beaded cable chain and the whipped chain stitch you just worked.
For the beaded cable chain stitch, use three strands of 798 in the #8 needle. For beads, use the opaque white seed beads included in the kit or on the materials list.
Making a Sharp Tip
When you want to make a very sharp turn on an acute angle with any stitch, you have to end your line of stitching as you normally would, and then start a new line down the other side of the angle.
So, as you work your way along the star, you’ll need to end your line of stitching at each outer tip of the star.
For most of the stitches, you can take the inner angle on the star (which is a more open angle) just as you would any slight turn, without ending the line of stitching.
This article explores embroidery sharp tips with chain stitch. The concept is the same with the beaded cable chain.
You don’t have to end each sharp tip with a bead – just end with whichever fits best: the beaded stitch followed by the knot, or the chain stitch, which you would then end as you would a normal chain stitch.
Final Step – One More Pass!
After you’ve completed the beaded cable chain around the whole start shape, switch to one strand of floss in the needle.
Starting at any inside angle on the star, work your way around the whole star and sew a straight stitch through each bead, coming up on one side of the bead, passing through the bead, and down on the other side of the bead. This is demonstrated in the video for beaded cable chain stitch linked to above.
Your stitches will begin and end pretty much where the original thread begins its journey through the bead.
At this point, you’re sewing through each bead one more time, to secure it and to firmly situate it on the fabric. This will help each bead stand up straight and maintain its position.
Next Up!
That, my friends, brings us to the end of Part 3!
In our next lesson, we’ll finish the embroidery on the star.
If you want to follow along with this project, you can find all the lessons so far listed here in the Twinkle, Twinkle Project Index.
Enjoy the weekend!
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