I stumbled across some great vintage embroidery designs in a vintage magazine that I thought might prove useful. These designs were added to trims and edgings on garments in 1860.

French knots are perhaps one of the most critical stitches for an embroider to know. There are very few commercial embroidery kits that do not make use of this stitch to create eyes, flower parts or a multitude of other features.

Bullion knots are perhaps only second to French knots in their usefulness for embroiderers. They provide a spring-like texture that based on stitch length can be straight, curved or even used as a picot.

The overcast stitch is used in two ways - to create a dimensional line of a narrow width or to finish an edge. The stitch is very similar to the satin stitch but is made with very short stitches.

In our article on how to sew the buttonhole stitch, we talked about created connections between open areas of cut-work with buttonhole connectors. This entry discusses two techniques for creating openwork using the buttonhole and overcast stitches.