TrellisStitchCopyright Tricia Wilson Nguyen for Thistle Threads, 2007

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Trellis StitchThe trellis stitch is worked very similar to detached buttonhole

and can be used to fill-in large areas with a net of solid color. Thedirections will be given for a regular shape to complete on your doo-dle cloth to understand the mechanics of the stitch. Just like thedetached buttonhole, stitches can be added or dropped to fill in irreg-ular shapes.All the trellis stitches will use one

strand of the Soie Perlee. First use a#8 embroidery needle to backstitcharound the outline of the shape to befilled in with trellis. The length of thebackstitch should be about three fab-ric threads. After this is completed,switch to a #26 tapestry needle forthe actual stitches. The blunt needlewill not catch the fabric.An example shape is shown in

the figure. After the outline is back-stitched completely around, come upat A on the left hand side of theshape. After coming up at Point A,pass the needle under the next back-stitch and form a loop under the nee-dle's point by crossing the needlewith the silk and then going underthe needlepoint.. Pull the loop tightagainst the needle and then pull theneedle through. This will form aknot on the backstitch. Keep amedium tension on your thread at alltimes to make the stitches even.Continue to make trellis knots acrossthe shape until the other side isreached and go through the fabric atpoint B. Come up at C and makeyour second row, reversing the waythe loop is formed over the needle.Keep repeating the steps until theentire shape is filled with the trellisnet.Try to keep an even spacing

between your knots and don't pulltoo tightly. The needle should nevergo through the fabric except at youroutline stitches. Always end andstart a new thread at the outline,never in themiddle of the shape.The diagram for the figures to be

worked shows areas which are to befilled in using trellis stitch and indicates what colors to use.To distinguish where to start on the figure, the same con-

vention will be applied as with the detached buttonhole. The arrowpoints in the direction that the stitch will be worked (top to bottom).In this way, you will always start on a flat end of a shape that has mul-tiple points. You can switch colors easily when working trellis stitchby ending off a thread and starting a new color on the left side of theshape.

Stitching by TriciaWilsonNguyen, Thistle ThreadsGraphic Arts byHeatherM. Blackburn and

Tricia WilsonNguyen

Visit us at www.thistle-threads.com

Trellis Stitch

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