Session 8: Cross Stitch & Herringbone Stitch

Now we're ready to work on the cross stitch and the herringbone stitch. Both are kind of variations of the same. They're both similar. They're a variation of the cross stitch. With the cross stitch, you do want two lines, and you're gonna bring your needle in from the wrong side. I like to have my lines, I mean, it just depends on what you're doing. This is the actual stitch that you use to complete cross stitch embroidery. And so as we work our way down, we're actually gonna go and we're gonna make all of the diagonals that go this way in our chain. And on the wrong side of the fabric, the stitches will be straight. So one way to see, like, if you're thinking, well I'm not sure where to put my needle, you can look and say, well, how wide do I want my X to be? So just kind of pull it over with your finger and look, and then go ahead and insert your needle, right where you think it looks good. Bring that up, or bring it through, I should say. And I'm kind of doing this one piece at a time, but then you're gonna bring it up straight here. And that's kind of doing, the stitch has two different parts in one go. And I'm actually securing my thread back here so that it stays put as I stitch. And there's the first part of our first stitch. Now, if you're gonna do it all in one fluid motion so that it looks nice and neat, you put your needle in on the bottom row, and you bring it up on the top row. You can do it either way, bottom to top, top to bottom, whatever you prefer. You're not gonna tuck the thread under at all with this stitch. You're actually just gonna let it kind of be. Because you're doing all the X's one direction at once. So, we come back up, et cetera Let's do one more, and then we'll go back the way we came. You know, and if ever you're worried like, oh, I don't know, I want to make sure it keeps going at the same angle, just pull it until you think it looks good. And then pop your needle down at the point where it intersects properly, and bring your needle up straight from that same point. So if you have a counted cross stitch kit at home, this is the stitch you're gonna be doing. And it is a good idea to go ahead and do all the row, all of the ones that are going one way that direction, and all the ones that are gonna go the other direction. So, you know, this side of the X and then the other side of the X. So now we'll go back and we'll do the other side of the X. So we'll put our needle in right at the bottom of this stitch, and bring it up in this stitch. You'll see that'll form our first full X right there. Okay, and then we'll just do that again. So you're gonna go back over where you've already stitched, bring it up through to the exact same hole you put the needle through last time, creating your X's as you go. So cross stitches can be used for any number of things. They are a good border, they are good filler stitch. Again, this is exactly what you're doing if you're doing cross stitch kits and the like at home, you can design your own cross stitch. So now we're on the final one. So I'm just gonna pop it in, just below this top stitch here, so that it looks nice and neat. And that is the cross stitch. You can see I managed to secure my thread that I started with underneath all those straight stitches. And those are doubly done, so it's extra, extra taut. So there's the, cross stitch. Now, a version of the cross stitch is known as the herringbone stitch. The herringbone stitch, again, you're going to come up, here, let's start right here, I'm gonna hold it this way. I'm gonna come up at the end of one of the lines we've marked. And we're gonna make sure nothing gets caught back there. Okay, then all you have to do is tuck it under and bring it back up real short succession. Like, you don't need too much on your needle. Just a little tiny bit there, like maybe a few weavings of the fabric, and pull it through. It's gonna be pretty tight. This is a good time to have your thimble on hand. So you have your cross stitch, and you wanna pull it down so that it crosses over that first line you made at the same angle of that first line. Then you're just gonna pop your thread or your needle, I should say, into the fabric. And then of course, just a few little bits of stitches, like so, and actually let's go backwards. We don't want to do it that way, we want to do it this way. Move the thread out of the way. So you're going backwards with it to create that X stitch. So, again, here, you're gonna look. So we're gonna pull it across, create the X and go backwards. So pop in here and then pop out where you want the next stitch to start to create that cross. Okay, and then we have these little X's towards the thread and you just go along right like that. We'll maybe do a few more so you can make sure you know exactly what you're doing. You always want to be moving the needle towards the last stitch, not toward the next stitch, so that all those little X's show up right where you want them to be. And one more. Now, a variation of the herringbone stitch is, well, first let me show you how to finish it off. You just put your needle in wherever the last stitch is gonna end, and pull it to the wrong side. So, oh, in that last one, look, they got a little bit narrow as I went. So if you want to do a tacked herringbone stitch, which is pretty easy, and it adds this little element you can see here, these little bits of color, right over where the X's intersect, all you do is you get another color of floss. I'm using kind of a maroonish color because it's pretty different than the green. You're gonna bring that up right here at the top of the X. And make sure you, there we go, the back of my cross stitch is not as beautiful as the front. Don't tell anyone. And then you're just gonna put it in right underneath. And to secure this stitch, you do want to hold onto that floss tail back there, and then you'll move it down, and you do the next one, this little one here. Unlike specific embroidery, this you're actually kind of moving your needle front, or right side of fabric, to the wrong side of fabric. And generally you would want to cut off that other floss that you had just used, but I did not, so. Here you go, see, we're securing this with little tacks. It just adds a little more fun to the stitch. Makes it look, you know, kind of fancy. I like it because you can do two different colors together, that look cool. And then you're all set. So you can see the herringbone stitch plain, the herringbone stitch tacked, and our variation there. So now you have the cross stitch and the herringbone stitch under control, and we're gonna do the feather stitch and the fishbone stitch next. So stay tuned.