How to Couch Stitch

Couching is an embroidery stitch used to create a straight line or to fill in an area with color and/or pattern.

This guide will show you how to couch stitch by "stitching down" a thicker thread laid down on the fabric with the use of a finer, and usually contrasting, thread, creating a pattern.

Couching is the technique used in most gold-work, know as the "Or Nue" technique, but is not limited to that application.

Two seperate threads are used in the couch stitch technique. Usually a thicker thread is laid down onto the fabric, this is then stitched down and secured using a finer, contrasting thread.

After you have selected your yarn, you will need to choose a fabric that lends itself to this technique, usually a linen or heavy cotton will be the most suitable type, although canvas or Aida cloth and evenweave fabrics can also be used.

You will use two different sized needles. Use one needle for the heavier thread if you wish to thread it through from the back of the fabric, and use a finer needle for the lighter "holding" yarn.

Lay the thread to be "couched" onto your fabric or, using the heavier needle, thread through from the reverse side of your work to the front. You will be holding this down while stitching over it.

Thread approximately 20 inches of the finer yarn onto your needle. If you want your stitches to be seen use a contrasting color; use a similar color if you do not want your stitches to be seen.

After bringing the needle up through the fabric at the beginning of the "laid" thread, take small stitches over the laid thread, perpendicular to it, and evenly spaced.

Catch the fabric behind the "laid" thread at each stitch. When you fill a pattern, laying several threads butting up to each other, you usually alternate the placement of your stitches. This will allow you to get a pleasing pattern, even if the couching thread is a similar color to the laid thread.

Continue filling, by laying new "laid" threads beside each other, until you have completed that area. Finish each piece of thread by slipping the needle through five or six fabric threads at the back of your work, and directly behind the laid thread, so that it is not visible at the front.