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Palestrina stitch tutorial

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

  • illustrated embroidery stitch instructions
  • a Palestrina stitch video
  • variations on Palestrina stitch
  • Royal School of Needlework stitch bank.

Palestrina stitch uses

Palestrina stitch creates a line of knots which look almost like French knots with back stitch in between. It's a very useful stitch for creating knobbly textures, includes stems or branches.
You can see Palestrina stitch in the photo below from my modern embroidery flowers design where the knotty stems are stitched in light and dark green. 
Palestrina stitch tutorial

 

Palestrina stitch is formed using a straight stitch and then doing two small stitches over it to form a knot. That's why it's sometimes called double knot stitch. 

Palestrina stitch tutorial

Palestrina stitch tutorial diagrams

On my modern embroidery flowers design I have marked out lines with dots on them to show you where to form the knots. If you're doing Palestrina stitch on your own embroidery design, 2 and 3 are just above and just below your stitching line.

  • Bring needle up through fabric at the start of the grey line at 1, working left to right. Put needle back down just above the first dot printed on the line at 2. Bring back up just below the same dot at 3.
  • Bring your needle and thread round and slide it under the first stitch (1-2), between the stitch and the fabric, not into the fabric.  This forms a V shape between 2 and 3.
  • Bring your needle and thread back round and slide your needle between the top leg of the V (near 2) and the fabric, making sure your needle goes over the thread.
  • Pull tight to create a knot which will cover the dot. Repeat along the line.

Palestrina stitch video

Download my free stitch guide covering 10 basic embroidery stitches. 

Variations on Palestrina stitch

  • You can close the gap between each Palestrina stitch to give a completely knotted line or leave them more widely spaced.
  • You can use Palestrina stitch as a filling stitch. If you offset the rows so the knots fit in between the knots on the previous row, you'll get a lovely knobbly texture. 

More on Palestrina 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 about Palestrina stitch and see their Palestrina stitch tutorial here.