Thursday, September 30, 2010

100 Stitches - knotted buttonhole stitch

This stitch is the next stitch from my 100 Stitches project:I actually should have titled this blog post "the most frustrating stitch to learn so far!" I have realized that this stitch features many of the things I find hard to do - keeping my spacing even, maintaining accurate tension of my floss, and forming consistent sized knots. You can see what I mean with one of my first attempts:But what makes this stitch so frustrating for me is that I don't really "get" the way you form the stitch. I read and re-read the instructions from 100 Stitches, but at every step I found myself stopping to arrange and re-arrange my floss. I had to keep looking back at the pictures to see if my needle was in the correct position, if it should be over or under the floss...ugh! I will try to explain how I think you are supposed to do this stitch in the following pictures and hopefully it will make sense! First draw some guidelines. On my first attempt, my guidelines were 1/2" apart. This proved to be too wide and only magnified my loose, uneven stitching. I would suggest 1/4". To start, come up through the fabric on the left edge of the bottom guideline:Form a loop from right to left. (100 stitches suggests that you do this over your left thumb) Bring your needle up into the loop: Slip the loop onto the needle - however not this tightly - this is just to show that the loop is supposed to be on the needle:And now bring the needle to the top guide line and into the fabric. This is where it all falls apart for me, I really had a difficult time bringing the needle into position and figuring out how the floss is supposed to be aligned. I finally resorted to "fixing" it every time in this position to look like the picture in 100 stitches : Now set up the stitch with the needle coming up through the fabric on the bottom guideline. The needle tip emerges above and over the floss: Pull the working floss to the right to tighten the knot. Do this BEFORE you pull the needle all the way through! This is a bit like making a french knot :
and complete your stitch: Now set-up for your second stitch in the same way that you did the first stitch. Make a loop from right to left:Now somehow ;) end up in this position: tighten the loop with the working floss and take your stitch:A whole line of these: will become this!This stitch is beautiful but I am going to need more practice and maybe even some different instructions to perfect this stitch!

15 comments:

John'aLee said...

I'm just lovin' your posts seeing I am new to hand embroidery. It is so much easier to understand than the books that are out there. So thanks bunches for taking the time to educate the rest of us out there. I know this isn't something you have to do...which shows what a big heart you must have!

donna!ee said...

absolutely gorgous stitch work...i wonder if sometime you would show the back of your work...it just seems that mine is so garbled! ;)

minitoko said...

Thank whoever that you exist and your blog too !
Thanks to you for sharing those wonderful stitches !

Janine - Foxtail Creek Studio said...

I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one who has trouble "getting" certain stitches...and this one looks like a toughie, definitely! But you did it, and it looks beautiful. Thanks for giving the rest of us hope :o)

Kim said...

Thank you all - I am really enjoying posting my progress in learning these stitiches and hearing from everyone! donn!ee - that is such a good idea to show the back of the work - I will start doing that - might be more interesting than the front!

Libby said...

Hmmmm...this one looks a little advanced for me! You do such a good job with taking pictures of your stitches! I don't know how you do it but you make even the more difficult stitches looke so clear and sharp!

Farah said...

Your tutorials are really easy to understand and I am very happy that I found you and your in my favourites list:). Emboridery is a passion... and you have this..

Hope you did like to visit at
http://craftaworld.blogspot.com/
Love
Farah

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

Wow, you explain this so, so well! I would love to link to your tute if you didn't mind.

Kim said...

Thank you both! Farah - your blog is really beautiful! Rachel - Yes please link to your site!

Giulia Viggiani said...

Wow I want to learn and you'd help me, thanks!

Kim said...

Giulia - I had a lot of trouble with this one but it's worth it to learn!

Heather said...

When I get stuck on a stitch I like to visit my old friend... youtube. Here's a video that shows it pretty clearly! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCN_eXLVcK0

Kim said...

Hi Heather, Thank you so much for that link! I really enjoyed watching it - it is shown so clearly and I was glad to see how much floss fixing and adjusting she was doing while she was stitching! Very helpful - thanks!

Heather said...

hey no problem! glad it helped :)

Bossymamma said...

Thank you for this tutorial - I was really struggling with this stitch until I found your tutorial!