Detached Up & Down Buttonhole Stitch

Detached Up & Down Buttonhole Stitch (DUDB) is used to fill solid areas.  Like Buttonhole Stitch, it can also be worked as a 'chorded' stitch (where a bar, or chord, is run across the fabric surface, and the stitches are worked over the chord).  It creates a lovely textural effect that works well for leaves and flowers, etc.   Shown here is a leaf worked in chorded DUBH.  (I will add a tutorial for the chorded version in the near future).

DUBH can be worked in silk, cotton, and the more pliable metal wires.  Tightly twisted silk threads are nice for adding more texture to the stitch.  For this tutorial a silk perlee that is slightly heavier than Au Ver a Soie's perlee was used, on 50 ct. linen.

Secure working thread with an away waste knot.  Stitch a row of back stitches from right to left.  Bring needle to fabric surface about 1/8" below backstitched line.  Slide needle down under the first backstitch as shown, being sure that the working thread is under the tip of your needle.  Pull the needle through.  This will create one buttonhole stitch.

Next, run the needle back up under the same back stitch, with the working thread held above the backstitched line, and under the needle, as shown at left.


Pull the needle through and tighten the stitch, lightly, by tugging downwards on the needle.  One DUDB has been completed.

 Repeat the above two steps for each backstitch, thereby completing one DUDB for each backstitch.

After completing a row, take the working thread to back of fabric and bring it back to the surface about 1/8" below the last row, to begin your next row.  


Subsequent rows are worked in the loops between each DUDB as shown at left.

Threaded Adornment: Four Centuries of English Embroidery

I visited the above referenced embroidery exhibit at the Philly Art museum last week.  Here's the link to the exhibit:        http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/417.html

 I was particularly interested in this 16th c. coif.  You can view it on the link, and zoom.  As is often the case in museum exhibits, I had to photograph from a couple feet away with a glass wall between, so please excuse the quality.   I've also included a description given in the exhibit.

As always when I view Elizabethan embroidery, I was struck with the delicacy of the stitches and motifs, which you don't get a feel for when viewing them online or in books.  Notice that the the butterfly is stitched in metallic threads, and the carnation (gillyflower) petals are spaced quite far apart.


















Additionally, there was a casket, pictured below....

The following information is from the Phil Art Museum website, which Deborah kindly gave me the link to.  When the casket wasn't shown in their special exhibit info I didn't think to look in their collections.  Thanks Deborah!

Casket info:

Made in England 1686 Elizabeth Nickholls, English Wood; silk satin with silk embroidery in satin, laid, and couched stitches; silver gilt trim 10 1/2 x 7 1/2 x 10 inches (26.7 x 19.1 x 25.4 cm) 1984-124-1

Label In the seventeenth century, a girl’s needlework education culminated in the production of an embroidered box called a “casket” or “cabinett,” typically worked in tent, raised, laid, and couched stitches. Images on the casket often depicted biblical tales. The panels on this example portray the religious story of Esther, a Jewish heroine who saved her people from a Persian assault. Her admirable behavior likely served as a model for the casket’s young maker. Caskets frequently held prized possessions, such as jewelry and writing equipment; as they were personally valuable, they were sometimes preserved in a professionally made oak box.