In stitching talk, silk gauze is not exactly what it sounds like – it isn’t gauzy, light silk that might be used to make a filmy, floating scarf. In the stitchery world, “silk gauze” is a kind of canvas – a miniature canvas, in fact, onto which you can embroider (usually in counted techniques) little things. Silk gauze is made out of filament silk, which makes a very strong, very fine canvas, and while it comes in lower holes per inch (as low as 18), it is probably better known in its higher holes-per-inch counts, as it is prized by those who love to do miniature work.

Silk gauze is similar to a needlepoint canvas, in that it is measured in “holes per inch” rather than “threads per inch” (which is how most counted embroidery fabric is measured).

Silk gauze can be found in Very High thread counts – as high as 112 holes per inch. (No matter how good your eyes may be, I suspect you’d have to use magnification at 112 HPI!) The more commonly used sizes of silk gauze range from 40 HPI (holes per inch) up to 72. 40 & 48 HPI silk gauze is fairly easy to come by. 60, 72, and higher require some serious hunting for specialty suppliers.

On silk gauze, especially higher count silk gauze, the recommend stitch to use is the tent stitch.