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Drawing of Cretan embroidery in closed Cretan stitch from *Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving*, 1912

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

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