This month, let’s take a walk on the vintage side of embroidery with a lovely whip stitch embroidery flower and leaf design. The whip stitch is a style available in the satin column stitch type properties of StitchArtist Level 2. It is available in 3 or 5 pass version. The number of ‘passes’ refers to how many times the primary stitch in each movement is repeated or ‘stitched over’ like a bean stitch. If you use the stitch simulator to replay a satin column with the 3 pass whip stitch setting selected, you will see the main, multi-pass stitch repeated 3 times with very slight offsets, followed by a single movement stitch that travels into the next repeated, multi-pass stitch.
This stitch can emulate hand stitching or thicker threads through the use of these multiple plies of standard embroidery thread. These chunkier stitches are thicker than your single pass satin stitches, so you may want to increase the distance between them by lowering the density. Remember, larger numbers means lower density as density is a measure of space between the stitches on an object. This increased spacing lets the stitches breathe and can also be used reveal some background fabric, helping to contrast and show off your choice of thread!
Lisa used variegated thread in this particular project. She used 28wt Aurifil cotton to be exact. The first thing she noticed about this variegated thread was that the lower density and stacked stitches (the 3-pass whip stitch) resulted in a less “stripey” effect than is sometimes seen when using variegated thread on standard satin lettering or applique finishing stitches. Her second revelation was that in using 28wt thread, which is thicker than standard 40wt embroidery thread, she further accentuated and exaggerated the look of hand stitching. That said, these larger threads required a large eye needle to avoid shredding. In her case, a 90/14 SCHMETZ Embroidery needle worked beautifully on both her single needle and PR-600 multineedle machines.
The design is provided in our native .BE format, enabling you to save a stitch file for any embroidery machine. If you aren’t already an Embrilliance owner, we provide a free method to use our software called Express Mode that will not only allow you to use any of the wonderful free designs found in our project blog, but also enables you to install and create basic text treatments with fonts distributed in our popular .BX format produced by many embroidery design creators.
To learn more about Embrilliance Express and for the instructions and links you need to download, install, and use our software with our free project files, please click here.