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Pulled Thread Tutorial 2
Pulled Thread Embroidery Lessons
Pulled Thread Free Patterns
© 2009 Lorelei Halley You may copy this for personal use, not for commercial use. Copying any part of this to another web site is specifically prohibited.
Site Map Pulled Thread Work Pulled Thread Tutorial Pulled Thread Gallery - Curvilinear
Pulled Thread Gallery - Geometric The White Sampler
For those who prefer not to make a whole sampler, I recommend making a bookmark using a few stitches that you want to try out. Then make a small project using those stitches. For any bookmark, start with a piece of cloth 3 to 4 inches wider and longer than the finished piece (working cloth 13 x 7 inches or a little larger). This will give your hoop something to grab. Select an outline stitch and then fill the area with a pulled stitch. If you think the fabric will fray too easily, overcast the edges before you start. For the fringed version you could start by working one row of 4 sided stitch all around, then your edge is already done. Change the size of the filled areas or of the whole bookmark, as you prefer.
See Pulled Thread Tutorial for diagrams of wave, faggot, ringed back, square back stitch, 4 sided, 3 sided, cushion, square double back, upright cross, Greek cross, eyelets, step stitch Palestrina knot, Hungarian chain, Portuguese stem stitch. See the bottom of that page for links to online resources for stitch diagrams and instructions.
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Bookmark #1 Finished size: 9 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches, 25 count linen. Stitches used: ringed back, faggot, spaced satin stitch. Outline stitches: raised chain band, Van Dyke, Sorbello. I decided after doing this piece that I didn't like the Van Dyke stitch as an outline and haven't used it since. Try out other outlining stitches that interest you. Just choose ones that are wide enough to hide the thread tails. Other possible outline stitches: coral knot, chain stitch, Palestrina knot, Hungarian chain. Outer edge: 4 sided stitch with 2nd row worked over folded fabric. Ringed back stitch, faggot stitch and 4 sided stitch are diagrammed on the Pulled Thread Tutorial page. Palestrina knot and Hungarian chain are also diagrammed there. The method of working the edge finish over folded fabric is also explained there, near the end. |
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Bookmark #2 Finished size: 9 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches without fringe, 25 count linen. Start with fabric 6 inches x 12 inches. Stitches used: wave, window, double window. Outline stitches: Palestrina knot, Hungarian chain, Portuguese stem stitch. Outer edge: 2 rows of 4 sided stitch. All the pulled stitches on this example are variants of the wave stitch: window and double window use different spacing than basic wave stitch. This shows how spacing variants affect the final appearance. |
Pulled thread work
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Bookmark #3 Free
Pattern To start, transfer the design to the cloth. I use children's water soluable felt tip markers. The light blue really does wash out relatively easily. Just lay the fabric on top of the pattern and draw the thinnest possible line onto the fabric. Fabrics used for pulled thread usually have spaces between the threads and it will be possible to see the pattern through the cloth. I outlined the motifs in chain stitch to start. The first leaf was worked in 4 sided stitch with one thread left unworked between stitch and between each row. The 2nd leaf was worked in wave stitch, made in rows running up and down the vertical axis of the leaf. This allowed me to make fewer, but longer rows. The 3rd leaf is faggot stitch. I added the leaf veins in chain stitch after working the filling stitch. But the chain stitch veins are too thick and obscure too much of the leaf. Back stitch, double running stitch or stem stitch would have been a better choice. The edge is secured with 4 sided stitch, and fringed. After finishing all the embroidery, including the edge, wash the piece in hot tap water and rub color free dish detergent into the fabric along the inked lines. Massage the detergent in with your fingers. Then rinse in hot water, under the running tap (to wash all the color away). I find that all the color does really wash away. Lay the cloth on a mirror or plastic surface, push into shape with your fingers and let it dry untouched. Often this is the only finishing needed. If you choose to iron it, place it face down on a thick terry cloth towel and iron on the wrong side. |
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Bookmark #4
Free Pattern I started this by working chain stitch and coral knot stitches along the squiggly lines, then added random flowers and French knots. Then I buttonholed the edge. I did this at this early stage so that the background stitches would have more than one place to hide their beginning and ending tails. I could use both the squiggly lines and the buttonhole to hide ends. I filled in the background with diagonal drawn filling, a faggot stitch variant. You work perfectly normal diagonal rows of faggot stitch, but work the rows with one thread junction separating the rows. The arrow shows where to start each row. diagonal drawn filling |
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 Free Pattern  |
Small Flower Mat #1 - Free Pattern Another option is a small mat with some simple motif outlined in surface stitching, and filled with any pulled thread stitch you like. The flower below uses cobbler and is outlined in Palestrina knots. The flower center is chain stitch and French knots. (I could have made a better choice since these 2 stitches are not visually distinctive enough relative to each other.) The larger leaf is diagonal cross and the smaller leaf is horizontal cable. Since the leaves are quite small, I would have done better to use pulled stitches which don't need so much room, perhaps faggot, wave, or 4 sided. I should also have used a thinner thread for the pulled stitches in the leaves They are outlined in Hungarian chain. The edge finish is 3 sided stitch worked over folded fabric. The finished mat below is 7 1/4 x 4 5/8 inches, but you can make it any size. You should choose whatever stitches you want to use. |
A further option is to work a series of small geometric mats. I have designed several as learning pieces. The first 4 use only the stitches from the yellow sampler on the Pulled Thread Tutorial page.
Beginner's piece #1 Pulled thread embroidery  |
Free Pattern This little square piece uses only the easiest pulled thread stitches and is quick to make. I used linen which is about 21 threads per inch, and DMC Cebelia #30 for the stitching. The finished piece is 4 7/8" x 5 1/8". It was supposed to be square--the myth of evenweave. In the diagram at left each square on the graph paper represents 2 threads by 2 threads. The red stitches are wave stitch. The yellow-orange stitches are 4 sided stitch worked over 4 threads. The purple stitches are 3 pulled satin stitches worked over 4 threads and spaced 6 threads apart, with the rows staggered. The yellow sampler on Pulled Thread Tutorial has all the stitches and stitch diagrams used in this piece. The pulled stitches are from rows 1, 2, and 3 of the yellow sampler, and the edge stitch is the same -- squared edging stitch. In the diagrams which accompany the yellow sampler, the blue lines on the graph paper represent 1 thread of the fabric. The green stitches are squared edging stitch. The diagram shows only the first row. After that 1st row is completed, you fold the fabric along the outer edge of the stitches, and work another row inside it, over both layers of fabric. This is considered a sufficient edge in pulled work, but I like to work a third row so more of the fabric is caught on the back. |
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Start by overcasting the edges of the cloth to prevent fraying as you work.
Then run basting stitches, each exactly 4 threads tall, down the center of the
cloth, vertically and horizontally. These basting stitches will help you
count and position the parts of the design correctly in relation to each other.
The 2 photos at left show this method of basting, on a much more complicated piece. Since the little puffy squares of square double back stitch are worked over 6 threads, I had to work all the other stitches in multiples of 3 threads. Therefore the green basting stitches are all exactly 3 threads tall. The basting lines tell me where to pivot and change direction. Work the piece in concentric rings, starting with the wave stitch center. Then do the 4 sided stitch; follow with the spaced satin stitch. Complete with the squared edging stitch. |
Beginner's Piece #2
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Free Pattern Pulled Thread Beginner's piece #2 uses stitches which appear in rows 2 and 4 of the yellow sampler: ringed back stitch and 4 sided stitch. However in this piece the 4 sided stitch is worked over 3 threads instead of 4. The ringed back stitch will use the same stitch diagram as in the yellow sampler. And there are stacks of pulled satin stitches just outside the 4 sided stitch. One difference in this piece is that since all the stitches are worked over 3 threads (an uneven number) the exact center of the piece is a single thread, not a trough between two threads. The diagram at left shows the relationship between all the parts. In this diagram each blue line is one thread of the fabric. The red stitches are ringed back stitch. The green stitches are 4 sided stitch. The blue stitches are satin stitch. The black stitches are ordinary buttonhole stitch worked over folded fabric. Also notice that the photo shows each row of ringed back has 5 ringed stitches, but the diagram shows 3. The diagram therefore shows just a little more than 1/4 of the whole piece. |
This photo shows back side. |
The little dots on the end of the buttonhole stitches represent my attempt to produce picots. I've tried various picots suggested in pulled thread books, but couldn't make any of them look right. So I improvised. I worked 2 detached buttonhole stitches into every 6th ordinary buttonhole stitch, and it looks reasonably like a picot. Use the diagram left. The long buttonhole stitches are worked into the fabric. The little detached ones do not pierce the fabric, but are made into that little loop at the bottom of the stitch. The row of satin stitch just inside the buttonhole stitch is there to help cover the raw edge of the fabric on the back side of the cloth, so it must be worked last, after the buttonholing is finished. |
Beginner's Piece #3
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Free Pattern In this design each square on the graph paper represents 3 x 3 fabric threads. The brown stitches in the center are Greek cross, worked over 6 fabric threads (each leg is 3 x 3 threads). The blue-green stitches are upright cross worked over 6 threads. The orange stitches are two rows of reverse faggot worked over 3 threads. The 2nd row uses the some of the same holes used in the 1st pass. The edge stitch is 4 sided stitch. The working method is similar to that for squared edging stitch. Work the outer row of 4 sided stitch first. Then fold the cloth exactly on the outer edge of the stitch row. Work the 2nd and 3rd inner rows over 2 layers of fabric. Cut off any of the 2nd layer fabric which remains visible on the wrong side of the piece. The stitches appear on the yellow sampler rows 5, 6 and 7 and are diagrammed there. |
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Beginner's Piece #4
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Free Pattern In the diagram for this one each paper square represents 2 x 2 threads of fabric. Stitches used are cushion (a form of double back stitch) for the central area; 3 sided stitch is the first concentric ring; eyelets and satin stitch stacks are the outer ring. Cushion is row 8 of the yellow sampler, 3 sided is row 9, and eyelets are row 10. These eyelets are worked over 4 x 4 fabric threads and are the same ones shown in cell 10 left and cell 10 center left. These stitches appear in rows 8, 9, and 10 of the yellow sampler and are diagrammed there. The edge finish is squared edging stitch, the same as in the first one and the yellow sampler. |
© 2009 Lorelei Halley This has been posted on the internet for the personal use of viewers. All and any commercial use or posting on another website is prohibited without permission in writing from Lorelei Terry Halley.
Other online lessons:
http://www.fidella.com/webstitch/stitch08.html
http://www.needleart.org/Charts/Hearts/pulled/
http://www.needlework-tips-and-techniques.com/pulled-work.html
