Brick and cross filling is a geometric surface stitch consisting of squares of satin stitch interspersed with large cross stitches in a chequerboard pattern.

This stitch lends itself to large motifs in Jacobean crewelwork.

This stitch first appears in print under this name in Mary Thomas’s 1936 Dictionary of embroidery stitches.

This stitch is a version of raised stem band worked over a heavily padded version of trailing which gives a solid, raised line.

As its name suggests, it is part of the Casalguidi technique, a late 19th/early 20th century whitework technique from Tuscany. It is sometimes known by the descriptive name of padded raised stem band.

Double buttonhole bars are narrow thread structures which are worked across a void.  A widely-spaced buttonhole stitch is worked across the thread base, and then a second row of buttonhole stitch is worked from the other side of the bar, between the ‘legs’ of the first row.  This results in a bar which has a raised edge on both sides; see buttonhole bars for a version with a raised edge on just one side.

The bars can be woven over threads from the ground fabric (where most of the fabric has been cut away), or over threads which have been stitched across the void.

This filling stitch is a variation of Elizabethan back stitch filling which gathers pairs of ladder rungs into a herringbone pattern. It is often worked around Elizabethan ladder stitch. A coloured passing is used here to show the filling clearly.

We are indebted to Jacqui Carey for her work in identifying this stitch in extant Elizabethan pieces, and diligent documenting of the working method.  See the References sections for details of her books which describe this and many other Elizabethan stitches.  N.B. the names used are descriptive names assigned by Jacqui Carey as historic records do not give us the names by which they were known.

This variation of pearl stitch is a line stitch of evenly spaced triangles, created by looping alternate stitches through each other.

It is believed that this stitch is a development of the version of pearl stitch which closely resembles a string of pearls.  The circumstances of this divergence is unclear, although it would seem likely that it was after the publication of Mrs Christie’s 1920 book, Samplers and Stitches which clearly documents the original version.

This canvaswork stitch is formed by a looping the thread around the warp and under the weft of the canvas.  It leaves a loop on the surface which can either be cut to form a piled surface or left as a loop.