I had the idea to create an own stitchionary (as in stitch dictionary 😉) to add to the nearly endless list of stitch dictionaries available in books and the internet. The reason is that not all embroiderers have got books covering the whole host of existing embroidery stitches, and all the blogs and websites that I could find so far, are limited to very few stitches only. If nothing else, I just wished every visitor of my website to be able to study an unknown to her or him stitch I was using in my projects by simply clicking on the name.

I plan to add stitches stepwise to the stitchionary as my own apprenticeship work advances. Hence the first section will be dedicated to all the cross stitch variations, from simple cross stitch to more demanding  cross stitches, such as Montenegrin stitch, Italian cross stitch etc. Eventually, you will be able to find here a whole range of stitches used in surface embroidery and canvaswork/needlepoint, too. 

Just keep dropping by from time to time - there could be one or more new stitch descriptions waiting for you! 

Here's to you, dear fellow embroiderers all around the world!

I would really like to list the names of the discussed stitches in as many languages as possible, but in most of the cases, they are very hard to come by. I even have a hard time to find the German names of many of the stitches, despite German being my native language. This is because, due to the frustrating lack of German sources when it comes to surface embroidery, I am learning to embroider nearly exclusively from English sources. 

So if you know any names of stitches in a language not already covered in my stitchionary - or if you find that a name in my list is wrong - please contact me! It would be wonderful if we were able to work out a real Multilingual Stitchionary together. 

Alphabetical Stitch Index 

There are many embroidery stitches out there that bear a variety of names. I have included them in the stitchionary as far as I could find them. This Alphabetical Stitch Index includes all the alternative stitch names, too. Hence if you look up for a specific stitch name, clicking the link will lead you to the appropriate stitch, which might be listed in the instructions under a different main title, though. If this should happen, just cast a glance at the alternative stitch names listed in the tables next to the main title to convince yourself that you weren't led wrong.