It’s been a while since I’ve posted a free hand embroidery pattern here on Needle ‘n Thread! This one, I dug up from an old issue of Le Journal de Brodeuses, cleaned it up and digitized it so that I can use it as a project to demonstrate some techniques. I’ll show you that in the future. Right now, the whole concept is just bubbling about in my brain.

But in the meantime, I think it’s a great hand embroidery pattern for working simple stitches, so I thought you might want a copy of it, too!

Do you want to try shisha stitch, but you don’t have any mirrors to practice with?

Are you working with mixed media, and you’d like to add a bit of paper and a bit of stitching to it?

Are you embroidering something that won’t be laundered and want to add a special touch?

Did you know you can work the shisha stitch without mirrors? You can use it to attach practically anything flat or barely domed to your embroidery surfaces.

This little bit of stitch play came into being by accident.

I was preparing to work up a tutorial for traditional shisha stitch, which is a decorative technique of stitching down little mirrors onto fabric, but I didn’t have any mirrors.

In fact, the whole thought of a mirror under studio lighting while trying to photograph a stitch tutorial seemed problematic to me, so I opted for card stock. After all, it’s the technique that’s being taught – once you know the technique, you can use it however you want!

The Basque stitch is a hand embroidery stitch perfect for working lines, curves, flowers, and borders.

You can think of the Basque stitch as a combination of twisted chain stitch and buttonhole stitch, upside down.

Barbara Suess’s new book, Temari Techniques: A Visual Guide to Making Japanese Embroidered Thread Balls is out, and is it a beauty! If you are familiar with temari and fascinated by the art, this is definitely a book for you! I’ve gone a few rounds with temari myself – I made this temari ball for my niece, for example – but I’ve always wanted to venture further with the it. And now, I think I definitely will! Barbara Suess’s book is inspiring!

Today’s video tutorial is on the Pekinese stitch. This is a composite stitch that starts with a backstitch line. A second thread is then looped behind the backstitches.

The up & down buttonhole stitch is a variation on regular buttonhole or blanket stitch. Up & down buttonhole creates a scalloped-looking line of buttonhole stitches, with two stitches tied together and locked down with a loop.