About

Mary Corbet

writer and founder

 

I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

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Splitting the Difference: Split Stitch vs. Split Backstitch

 

Amazon Books

Yesterday, we talked a little bit about the split stitch, discussing the direction from which the stitch is split: do you split up into the stitch or down into the stitch?

Split Stitch, Split Backstitch, Chain Stitch: The Differences
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Splitting Hairs over Split Stitch?

 

You might call this splitting hairs – going into too much detail over something that seems to matter little – but it’s a question that comes up often, so it’s probably worth addressing briefly.

This is the question: when you work the split stitch in hand embroidery, does it really matter from which direction you split the stitch?

Most split stitch directions will tell you to split up into the stitch from underneath it. But, you might argue, as long as you’re splitting the stitch, does it really matter all that much? Can’t you split from the top, which is much easier to accomplish because you can see right where your needle’s going?

To answer the question, I’m going to take the middle path: it depends…

Lettering with Split Stitch
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RSN Handbook of Embroidery – Book Review & a Question

 

This book review has been a Long Time Coming! I’ve had the book for a while – sent to me by a friend – and while my plan was ever to review it for you all, I felt I couldn’t do a review justice by a cursory reading of the book. Finally, I have read it from cover to cover, and I feel (somewhat) confident in writing a review.

RSN Handbook of Embroidery
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