The stitch dictionary is arranged in alphabetical order and will help you to go to a stitch directly. Just click on the alphabet given in the index to go to the stitch beginning with that alphabet. Some stitches are known by multiple names and all names are included here. Hovering over the stitch names will give you the most common name by which the stitch is known.
A .B . C . D . E .F .G . H I . J . K . L . M .N . O .P . Q.R . S . T . U .V .W .X . Y .Z
Sarah’s Hand Embroidery is your one stop destination for hand embroidery stitch lessons with step-by-step illustrations, patterns, projects, and a bit of history.
Sarah has been researching and sharing hand embroidery lessons for over 17 years, making it accessible to everyone around the globe.
10 Books | 500 Lessons | 200 Videos
Learn hand embroidery stitches through step-by-step photo illustrations with tips, techniques, projects, and patterns.
Check out our embroidery book store for more books on hand embroidery.
Ermine Stitch is also known as Ermine Filling…
About the Crown Stitch The Crown Stitch is a motif…
Raised Needle Weave Bar is also known as…
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I recently discovered Quaker stitch, and I love it! Any chance of adding it to your library?
Thank you, Briela! I love the Quaker Stitch. I will add it to the dictionary! 😊
Hello Sarah ma’am
I would like to thank you for creating such a wonderful library of stitches, am so much over whelmed that i cannot express my words.
Almost after 20 yrs i have taken the needle back in my hand with the mindset to share my knowledge of hand embroidery to others who are interested to learn by creating videos of stitches.
while searching for stitch name came across your site and my search ended as it has everything that i needed and more than that….
Honestly, I respect you for your time, effort, dedication and hard work that you have given to create this mind blowing site 🙂
Hi Insiyah,
What a delight to read your comment. I wish you all the best. Thank you for your appreciation.
Much love,
Sarh
Margui
I want to make a book of sample stitches in order to learn them and have a fun record of how they look. How can I arrange and make this book? What might be the background fabric?
Thanks for inquiring, Valerie. I feel the best way to record the stitches would be according to each ‘Stitch Family’. This will help you to identify stitches and remember them easily. You can check the picture dictionary in our website for guidance.
You can also arrange them based on their nature, like if they form lines, or fillings, or loops, or if they are isolated stitches. A full categorized list is available in my ebook, which will be out in a couple of weeks.
For background fabric, use a simple cotton or linen fabric.
I hope this information helps.
Sarah,
This is wonderful, but is there any way to get it in “book form”? I teach a class of beginners – school girls learning this old craft! – and it would be WONDERFUL to share this tool with them.
Thanks,
Brenda
Hi Brenda,
We are working on an E-book at the moment. Planning to get it out by mid 2018.
I hope you are not surprised at my late response- had a busy year. 😀
Dear Sarah,
Many thanks for sharing your knowledge about hand embroidery and creating the most wonderful and informative website I have ever come across! I have learnt so much from your website and am eagerly waiting for your e-book to be out. Will you be having a kindle edition too? Thanks a heap once again.
Best wishes,
Jyotsna
Hi Sara,
Could You please share any word or PDF file. which including all Stitches details.
I need all.
Thanks
do you know how to do hemming stich
Do you have a book similar to the information on the website?
Dear Jasmine,
We are working on an ebook, and hopefully it should be out by the end of this year.
I just discover Pinterest and it was a great surprise for me to find your blog. Congratulations, you make feel so happy with all these embroidery stitches. I only can say woow, woow and woow. Thank you very much for your generosity and kindness. Blessings and greetings.
how different is stumpwork ?
WhatWhat does it mean to pluck the fabric?
Hi Martha,
Pluck the fabric means to pick just a bit of the fabric with your needle.
yes, il be waiting..thankyou so much Sarah.. 🙂
Hi Sarah…i saw this amazing stitch somewhere called walneto stitch it looks really lovely but it dint turn out right when i tried it..if possible can u give me the instructions. .
Hi,
I will try to give the instructions, Malaiyka. This is a even weave fabric stitch, which I will take time to create a tutorial for, since I am right now working on the other stitches. Hope you can wait. 🙂
hi Sarah,
i want woven picot stitch. please upload this stitch.
Thank u. ur embroidery tutorial is very usful for me
Hi Sarah,i just found your wonderfull site.its very full .thankyou very much.:)
Hi Sarah,
I’d like you tell me about the reverse of the embroidery. My embroidery does not have a pretty reverse.
Thank you.
Thank you for your site. I was helping a young worker on my farm learn a few stitches and prepare a sampler piece – this was not just handy – but actually enlightening. I remember making a stitching and embroidery sampler in school – but unfortunately that piece of cloth is lost. Could you include a small set of instruction on how to prepare one – for beginners?
I was looking at how to possibly do a name on something. I was wondering which stitch would be best to use? I want it to be a little thicker of lettering, but I am new to this and there are so many stitches I don’t know where to start! Thanks!
I can suggest you satin stitch or just two rows (to make thicker) of chain stitch or one from its family.
hi sarah i want to know abt long and short emb… plz tell me abt it
I wish you had a way to print out all your stitches. Have enjoyed looking at your stitches and am sure going to try most of them.
Thank you
Dora Furness
Dear Dora,
All our tutorial pages are print friendly and have an option to be printed out. Just check the box right after the last picture of each tutorial…you would find the print icon.
Hi, Sarah!
I have a question… In “stitches&stitch families” I saw pictures of chevron stitch family, but I can’t find them here.. Where can I find them on your site?
Thank you so much!
Beatiful and very helpful site! 🙂
Dear Ana,
The reason why you cannot see the tutorial for the chevron family of stitches is because, it is yet to be uploaded. I have only put these pictures there in advance, so that you know what stitches are coming up.
Can you teach us different ways of Long and short stitch which is very much needed for filling…
Assalamu aleikum sarah!
Its Owsm 🙂
Assalam o Alaikum sarah ur tutorials r wonderful n ur illustration r too gud.i learnt alot from ur blog.i wana learn sozni stitch for my pashmina shawl would u plz illustate dat stitch on ur blog.prayers n best wishes 4 u .Allah Hafiz
Hi Sarah,
All your stitches are really useful & superb which keeps us engaged.. Thanks for that.. 🙂
But I could certain stitch are been removed, below is the list of those. Could you please add them for our learning…
Thanks for your great work..:-)
Blind knot
Caterpillar stitch
Chiara stitch
Chinese knot
Coil stitch
Crewel stitch
Damask stitch
Darning stitch
Figure 8 knot
Forbidden stitch
German knot
Grub knot
Ladder stitch
Line stitch
Long french knot
Long tailed daisy
Magic chain stitch
Point de cable
Point de chainette
Point de riz
Point de sable
Porto rico rose
Post stitch
Side to side stem stitch
Slipped detached chain
Square chain stitch
Square stitch
Tambour stitch
Tete de la boeuf
Twilling stitch
Two sided line stitch
Two sided stroke stitch
Vandyke chain stitch
Worm stitch
Y stitch
Can you show a blanket stitch? Thank you.
Hi,
I have added blanket stitch to the list.
You can also check the tutorial through this link : https://www.embroidery.rocksea.org/stitch/blanket-stitch/blanket-stitch/
Can you show a blanket stitch? Thank you.
Dear Susan,
I will be putting up blanket stitch tutorial soon. Please allow time for its preparation. 🙂
Hi Sarah!
Your tutorials are a boon to me. They are wonderful, and you make it seem so easy! Thank you so much.
Sharada
Dear Sharada,
I am glad that you found our tutorials very helpful. 🙂
hai sarah………
i am dhanya from kerala. i went through all of you stitches. i have no words to thank you. thanks a lot sarah. i like your site. sarah .. your illustration is very simple and all stitches can be studied fastly. again thankyou very much sarah.
Dear Dhanya,
Thanks. 🙂 I hope you enjoy learnign from our pages. There are more stitches to be added!
Hi sarah,i’m zainab from nigeria, please can you recommend books with clear instructions on crewel, mordern jacobean, gold work etc and how to get easy access to them due to problems of different currency, mailing cost, distance etc. Thanks.
Dear Zainab,
I think the best way is to check in book stores near your house. I am not too sure on which book I can recommend for the works you have mentioned. Maybe you can check them online as well.
Thanks alot sarah, i really appreciate.
Hi sarah, i’m zainab from nigeria, first i’ve to say big thanks cos i benefited alot from your tutorials, is very clear, infact i’ve practice all the basic stitches from your tutorials in my album but i’ve a problem and i need your help, i know virtually all the basics but how to get started in a specific area like crewel,needle painting, white work etc is what i do not know, please, i need you to guide and encourage me. Thanks
Dear Zainab,
Thanks for your comment. I appreciate your enthusiasm for embroidery and the efforts you put in for it.
Now, to execute the stitches you have learnt in a specific area of needlework, you can look at the panel on the right hand side of this web page. There is a section called ’embroidery’, under which tutorials for different embroideries are given. Each embroidery explains how the basic stitches are used, possibly the ones you know.
These embroidery section will expand with time. Right now, there are four embroidery styles.
Hi,
For a while, i felt that i am missing something terribly. It was my hobbies.Thanks for reminding the same. You are awesome. Someday, i’ll comeback to you with my creations. Bless you both.
Dear Priya,
I would love to see all you have learnt and stitched. 🙂
Best wishes.
hi sarah,
thank u for ur suggestions.i will try and let u know how it came.
thank u once again
bye
sapna
hello sarah,
i went through all ur stitches .now i want to do it on my salwar.can u suggest me some of the stitches which u prefer doing on the salwar.waiting eagerly.
thanks and regards
sapna
Dear Sapna,
Glad to learn that you went through all the stitches. On what you can do on your salwar kameez will depend on what kind of look you want it to give you. It will be tough for me to suggest, but try doign some floral designs using chain stitch family, or even border designs usign the running stitch varities.
Hi Sarah,
I’m looking for the filling stitch used here http://lh5.ggpht.com/_sHkjxQ6JSg4/SW2H6Chf-XI/AAAAAAAAB_Q/YHsVPZl_T9E/s1600-h/Elizabethan1%5B3%5D.jpg.
I’ve gone through the many stitches in your dictionary but cannot find it. Do you know which stitch it is?
Thanks in advance!
Dear Tessa,
This stitch looks like the ‘detached buttonhole stitch’, which belongs to the ‘buttonhole stitch family’. I have not yet prepared the tutorial for this stitch.
Hi Sarah,
I’m very pleased that I came across your tutorials. The pictures are very clear and I was able to pick up many of the stitches (excuse the pun) very quickly!
Best Wishes
Hello Liz,
We are happy that you enjoy learning from our pages. 🙂
i went through all of ur stitches.They are really nice.i know some of the stitches in that.Now i am able to learn more.i will try the stitches of urs and then get back to you.
Dear Sapna,
Thanks. 🙂 Do let me know how your learning is going on.
hi sarah
i went thro all ur illustrations of stitches… it is beautiful, simple and useful too..thanks a lot for sharing….sanmanasinnu nanni
Dear Viji,
Nice to know that you liked our pages. 🙂