May 18, 2012

Explorations, 1: V Stitch

Shape: V or inverted V (^)

Basis of such stitches as herringbone, chevron, cretan, cross stitch, fans, letters, feathers and some blanket stitch formations

When combined in a continuous row, Vs form a zigzag or sawtooth edge.

An easy way to get a zigzag edge would be to fold paper in an accordian, and cut a point across the top edge.  When unfolded, you would have regularly spaced triangular points.
You could also use a manufactured template.  An example would be Dream A Seam Templates 01, 02, 04 (A,B). If using the Dream A Seam templates, refer to the handout to see the templates marked with numbers and letters.  These would be in Collection 1 / Set 1

For this lesson, pick a stitch that shows the obvious V.  Refer to the Master List under Notes, if you need help.

Keeping it very simple, we will stitch our V stitch in various straight line arrangements.  (You can use a different line, if you wish, curved or zigzag--see the list under Notes.)

Lines are:
  1. Continuous, unbroken (think sawtooth or a pinked edge along a seam)
  2. Linked, interlinked (think bottom feet overlapping)
  3. Detached, interrupted (think separate stitches any distance apart, such as ^  ^  ^  ^  or v v v v v)
  4. Detached, inverted (think separate stitches with one stitch inverted, various distance apart, such as ^v ^v)
  5. Offset layering (think same stitch with the 2nd run offset, stitches on top of each other)
  6. Detached, stacked or nested  (think stitches that look like this <<<<)
  7. Detached, mirror image  (think <>)
The Lesson Objective:
Become very familiar with these 7 arrangements of stitches--add them to your stitch stash.
If you don't want to stitch all of them, at least draw them out on graph paper so you have them as a reference for when you sit down to stitch a seam or section of stitching.



Debra's Sample

This turned out interesting to me--just using a V stitch, look at all the very simple variations you can stitch.  It's easy to see how any of these arrangements could become the basis for a much more complex pattern of stitching.  I will definitely be using this idea more with my stitching.

9 comments:

Suztats said...

Sounds great, Debra! Thanks!

MunirGhiasuddin said...

You are doing things that I have always dreamed of. I sneeze an wheeze a lot. So it is very hard or me to sit down even to crochet. Hopefully Allergy season will give me a break soon and may be I can practise the half chevron stiches.

Debra Dixon said...

For those using DaS templates, this was done with Template 01/B and as you can see even with a template, I can't stitch a line of Vs! The dog bumped my elbow when I was marking my dots and when I started the stitching what I thought was a dot, wasn't one. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! (Good thing this is just practice!)

Debra Dixon said...

Connie,
It might be interesting to do this Stitch Exploration with waste canvas and post it. Cool to compare the processes & results.

Judy S. said...

Interesting. Did you stitch each leg of your "v" separately? Or did you do a fly stitch?

Debra Dixon said...

Separately. Actually I stitched all the one direction slants and came back and stitched the other direction slants (like cross stitch)

Peacock said...

For clarity, this post is the one that you suggest we edit to include our own explorations with short note, like you did with your sample? So this will become a group-edited post?

Connie Eyberg Originals said...

Good idea. I'm heading to Hobby Lobby Tuesday night to pick up some lace I ordered. I'll look for the waste canvas (if I remember). Two experiments in one.

Debra Dixon said...

I thought since everyone here is an "author" you could edit this post, but apparently, I am the only one as the "administrator" who can edit all the posts.
So, you will need to send your photos and short comment to me & I will add it to the post.

So, yes, this where you should see your post so they are all together as a group.