detached chain stitch

  1. Bring your needle up through the fabric

  2. Create a loop by taking your needle back down in the same place you came up through the fabric. You should have a loop like picture 3

  3. Now bring your needle up just inside the loop as in picture 4. This is where you need to pay attention to tension. Your loop will tighten as you pull the thread through so you need to stop pulling when your loop is the shape and size that you want. If you pull it too tight you will end up with a long thin petal if you don’t pull it through enough your loop might feel too loose.

  4. Take your needle back down just outside the loop as in picture 5 making a small stitch to ‘lock’ the loop in place.

To turn your chains into a plant just make two chain stitches as in the first picture joining at the base. Then make a back stitch(picture 1). Now you will make your next two chain stitches at the base of your back stitch as in picture 2. Continue until you have a big enough plant. I like to have a couple of back stitches for the stalk at the bottom.

You can also pop a straight stitch inside each petal as in the final picture. I used a different colour but you could also use the same colour.

While I use detached chain stitches a lot continuous chain stitch is something I use less often but it can create a nice effect especially once you get a rhythm going. Tension is important in this stitch. The chain in the images above is quite loose so that you can see the process. I recommend practicing a bit and trying smaller and larger loops as well as different numbers of threads.

  1. For continuous chain you follow all the steps for detached chain apart from the last one. You don’t lock the stitch, instead you create your next loop as you can see in picture 1.

  2. To create your next loop you bring the needle back down inside the first loop in the same place you brought it up. Next bring your needle back up a stitch length away inside the thread creating a new loop for your second stitch. This is hopefully made clear in the first and second pictures.

  3. Continue stitching in this way until you reach the end of your chain when you can lock it in the same way you did the detached chain stitch.