Featherstitch


Featherstitch or feather stitch and Cretan stitch or faggoting stitch are embroidery techniques made of open, looped stitches worked alternately to the right and left of a central rib.[1] Fly stitch is categorized with the featherstitches.
Applications
Feather stitch is a decorative stitch which is usually accompanied with embellishments.[2] Cretan stitch is characteristic of embroidery of Crete and the surrounding regions.[3]
Open Cretan stitch or faggoting is used in making open decorative seams and to attach insertions.
Feather stitch embroidery arose in England in the 19th century for decorating smock-frocks. It is also used to decorate the joins in crazy quilting. It is related to (and probably derives from) the older buttonhole stitch and chain stitch.[1]
Variants
Common variants of featherstitch include:[4][1]
- Basic featherstitch
 - Long-armed featherstitch
 - Double featherstitch
 - Closed featherstitch
 - Chained feather stitch
 - Cloud stitch
 
Stitch gallery
-  			
Featherstitch -  			
Closed featherstitch as a couching stitch, left, and long-armed featherstitch, right -  			
Double featherstitch -  			
Chained featherstitch 
Looped stitches
Other looped stitches include:[4][1]
- Cretan stitch[5] or Open Cretan stitch or faggoting stitch
 - Closed Cretan stitch
 - Fishbone stitch
 - Fly stitch,[6] a filling stitch made of single, detached tacked loops.
 - Loop stitch
 - Scroll stitch
 
Gallery
-  			
Cretan stitch -  			
Closed Cretan stitch -  			
Closed Cretan stitch -  			
Faggotting with twisted Cretan stitch -  			
Fly stitch -  			
Loop stitch -  			
Scroll stitch 
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework. The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (March 1992). ISBN 0-89577-059-8, p. 39-41
 - ^ Sarah (2011-01-26). "Feather Stitch". Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
 - ^ Christie, Grace: Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving, London, John Hogg, 1912
 - ^ a b Enthoven, Jacqueline: The Creative Stitches of Embroidery, Van Norstrand Rheinhold, 1964, ISBN 0-442-22318-8
 - ^ Willem. "Cretan Stitch". trc-leiden.nl. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
 - ^ Willem. "Fly Stitch". trc-leiden.nl. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
 
References
- Caulfield, S.F.A., and B.C. Saward, The Dictionary of Needlework, 1885.
 - Christie, Mrs. Archibald (Grace Christie), Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving, London, John Hogg, 1912, online at Project Gutenberg
 - Enthoven, Jacqueline: The Creative Stitches of Embroidery, Van Norstrand Rheinhold, 1964, ISBN 0-442-22318-8
 - Reader's Digest, Complete Guide to Needlework. The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (March 1992). ISBN 0-89577-059-8
 


