Feather stitch tutorial

To learn how to do feather stitch, why not check out my feather stitch tutorial. It includes:

illustrated embroidery stitch instructions
feather stitch video
tips for success
variations on feather stitch, including double feather stitch and maidenhair stitch
Royal School of Needlework stitch bank.

Feather stitch uses

Rows of feather stitch look so graceful but as they’re just interlinked V shapes they're simple to do. You're likely to use feather stitch for stems, branches, seaweed, coral or other foliage.

Feather stitch tutorial

Bring the needle up at 1, then down at 2 and up at 3, keeping the thread in a loop behind the needle.
Make a second stitch using the thread at 3 as your starting point, put the needle down at 4 and up at 5.
Continue from 6 in the same way.
To finish off make a tiny stitch over the thread to hold the last loop in place.

Feather stitch video

Tips for success

Keep the stitches evenly sized and spaced, unless you want a more random effect. In my kits I mark the stitch lines. This makes it easy to see how the V shapes are formed so you stitch them in the right place.
Otherwise, draw four parallel lines onto your fabric. The second and third lines are the bottom of the two V shapes which form the stitch.

Download my free stitch guide covering 10 easy embroidery stitches, including feather stitch.

Feather stitch variations

My favourite variation is double feather stitch where you go one V further out on each side. You can see this in the light and dark pink stitching on the navy blue leaf in my leaf embroidery kit. In my kits I mark the stitch lines so it's easy to see how the V shapes are formed and to stitch them in the right place.

Double feather stitch on leaf embroidery kit

Double feather stitch instructions

Bring the needle up at 1, then down at 2 and up at 3, keeping the thread in a loop behind the needle.
Make a second stitch using the thread at 3 as your starting point, put the needle down at 4 and up at 5.
Make a third stitch using the thread at 5 as your starting point, put the needle down at 6 and up at 7.
Then change direction to make the fourth stitch using the thread at 7 as your starting point, put the needle down at 8 and up at 9.
Continue in the same way.

Maidenhair stitch

You can vary feather stitch by changing the stitch angle. An example is maidenhair stitch where the Vs are done so one side forms a straight vertical line. In my chickens embroidery kit I have marked the stitch lines. This makes it easy to see how the V shapes are formed so you stitch them in the right place.

Maidenhair stitch instructions

Bring the needle up at 1, then down at 2 and up at 3, keeping the thread in a loop below the needle.
Make a second stitch, using the thread at 3 as your starting point. Put your needle down at 4 and up at 5, keeping the thread in a loop below the needle.
Repeat until you get to 7.
On the chickens design, you then repeat the group of stitching, but with the V shapes on the right hand side rather than the left.
Keep your stitches fairly tight so the V shapes stay sharp.

More on feather stitch

The Royal School of Needlework has a stitch bank which aims to preserve every known stitch. It will become a world-wide directory of embroidery stitches. You can read their stitch bank entry for feather stitch and see their feather stitch tutorial here and double feather stitch here.