Herringbone stitch & its 2 beautiful variations

Herringbone stitch is worked between two parallel lines (imaginary or drawn). A series of crisscrossed diagonal stitches are made between the lines. On the reverse side of the fabric, these stitches will show up as parallel rows of running stitches. Use a very thin, long needle of sizes 7 or 9 to make this stitch.

This stitch is great great for working floral designs and border patterns. You can use this as a very attractive and adequate filling stitch.

When you are filling a design with herringbone stitch, make sure that you are placing the stitches very close to each other. If you are working this stitch with space between stitches, it gives a different effect.

In shadow work and Chikankari work herringbone stitch is used on the back of the fabric to fill the design so that parallel rows of back stitches/running stitches are created on the front of the fabric.

Checkout the tutorial to do a reverse herringbone stitch which is a variation of the back stitch. While doing a back stitch on the front of the cloth herringbone stitches are made at the back of the design.

Note: Use the hoop to do this stitch if you do not want the fabric to sag as it has been done in mine. Also, ensure you are not pulling the thread too tight between stitches.

Step 1

The needle is brought to the top of the cloth from beneath ( A). Take the needle to the opposite line and take a small stitch upwards B-C.

Step 2

Now take the needle to the previous line and take a small stitch behind the first point . Go on working in this manner going from left to right and right to left, till the whole design is filled.

To make this stitch, work the regular herringbone stitch between parallel lines. Thread the needle with a different thread ( or different) and make a straight stitch over all of the crossed stitches in the herringbone pattern. I would think a bead also would look good between those crosses.

Add beads to the herringbone stitch, and you have a beautiful beaded border embroidery stitch. Checkout more beaded border embroidery stitches here.

Double Herringbone stitch

To make a double herringbone stitch, each row is worked with one color herringbone stitch. Then a different colored thread is used to make the herringbone stitches between the gaps. This is an excellent stitch for borders.

closed herringbone stitch

Ladder Herringbone stitch

This stitch is a woven herringbone stitch with a two step process. First, two parallel back stitch lines are made some 1/4 inch or so apart in a stepped manner.

Then, another thread is woven through the running stitches. Check out the post on Ladder stitch for more details.