By Show Me Step by StepPublished
Based on a video by KC Needlepoint.
The continental stitch, also called the tent stitch, is the first stitch most people learn in needlepoint. Each stitch is one small slant that covers a single crossing of the canvas threads. Brigid from KC Needlepoint shows it in under five minutes: rows going left, rows going right, and columns going up and down. By the end you will have a neat little block of stitches and know how to start and finish a thread without a single knot left behind.
Both make the same tent stitch on the front. The difference is the path. Basketweave works in diagonal rows and leaves a woven pattern on the back that keeps the canvas square. Continental works in straight lines, so it pulls the canvas on the bias over a big area. Brigid's advice: learn both. Use basketweave for backgrounds and large areas. Use continental for single lines, outlines, letters and tight spots where basketweave has no room to move.
A 13 mesh canvas (13 holes to the inch) is a friendly size to start. The holes are easy to see and each stitch fills in quickly. 18 mesh gives finer detail but is harder on the eyes. For thread, pick something that covers the canvas without being so fat it drags. Pearl cotton size 5, Persian wool split to two strands, or stranded cotton doubled up all work on 13 mesh. If canvas peeks through between stitches, your thread is too thin. If it scrapes and frays, it is too thick.
A waste knot holds the thread while you start. It sits on top of the canvas about an inch away, in the direction you are stitching. Your first stitches cover the thread on the back and lock it in. Once they do, you snip the knot off the front. Nothing lumpy is left behind to show through when the piece is framed or made into a pillow.
Pull each stitch until it lies flat on the canvas, then stop. Pull too hard and the canvas threads bunch up and the holes go crooked. Too loose and the stitches look loopy. Let your needle dangle now and then so the thread untwists. Work with a piece about 18 inches long. Longer threads wear thin from passing through the canvas so many times.
A small ornament, a coaster, a bookmark or your initials make good first pieces. A painted canvas with simple shapes is another easy start. You stitch right over the paint and the design is already there.
If you like counted work, try cross stitch next, and learn how to read a cross stitch pattern to follow a charted design. For freehand embroidery on fabric, start with backstitch and satin stitch.
9 steps · about 5 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Thread your tapestry needle. Then go to the far end of the thread, the end opposite the needle, and tie a plain overhand knot. That is your waste knot. It will anchor the thread on the front of the canvas while you make the first few stitches, and it comes off later. A blunt tapestry needle slides through the canvas holes without splitting the threads.
Tip
Cut a working length of about 18 inches so the thread does not wear thin.
Push the needle down from the front about an inch away from where your first stitch will go. Pull until the knot sits on top of the canvas. Place it in the path you are about to stitch. As you work toward it, the thread running along the back gets trapped under your new stitches and holds tight without any knot on the back.
Tip
Keep the knot in line with your row so the stitches cover the tail.
Each continental stitch covers one canvas intersection, the spot where a vertical and a horizontal thread cross. Four holes surround it. When you are working to the left, bring the needle up through the bottom left hole and take it down through the top right hole. Pull until the stitch lies flat. That one slant is the whole stitch.
Tip
Count the holes around the intersection out loud the first few times: one, two, three, four.
Come up again in the hole directly to the left of where your last stitch started. Go down top right, which is the hole your last stitch came up from. Keep repeating. Every stitch sits right beside the one before, all leaning the same way, and the row grows to the left. Your waste knot tail gets caught under the stitches on the back as you go.
Tip
If a stitch leans the other way, pull it out. You came up in the wrong corner.
At the end of the row, drop down to the intersection right below your last stitch. Now you are working to the right, so the direction flips. Come up through the top right hole and go down through the bottom left hole. The front looks the same as before. The back gets a long slanted stitch, which gives you good coverage and something to weave through later.
Tip
Turning the canvas upside down for every return row is another way to keep the motion the same.
Columns follow the same idea as rows. When you are stitching downward, come up in the bottom left hole and go down in the top right hole. Your next stitch sits directly below the last one. Single columns like this are where continental shines: letters, outlines, borders and narrow stems that basketweave cannot reach.
Tip
Use continental for lines and outlines, basketweave for big background areas.
Going up a column, reverse it. Come up in the top right hole and go down in the bottom left. Then turn the canvas over and look at the back. Each stitch should leave a long, slanted thread behind it. If you see short straight stitches instead, you have made a half cross stitch, which covers less and wears through sooner.
Tip
Check the back every few stitches while you are learning. It tells you more than the front.
When your thread runs short, or you want to change colors, flip the canvas to the back. Run the needle under the slanted back stitches of four or five stitches nearby. Slide it along the surface and do not poke through to the front, or the thread will show. The tight back stitches grip the tail so it cannot work loose.
Tip
Weave through stitches of the same color so a dark thread does not shadow a light area.
Snip the woven tail close to the back of the canvas. Then turn back to the front and find your waste knot. The stitches you made over its thread now hold it in place, so you can cut the knot off right at the canvas. Small sharp scissors make this easy. That is the whole continental stitch, start to finish, with no knots left anywhere.
Tip
Pull the knot up a little before you cut so the blade does not catch a stitch.
Keep going
How to Do a Blanket Stitch (Decorative Edging by Hand)
8 steps · about 11 minutes
How to Do the Continental (Tent) Stitch in Needlepoint
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