Advanced Embroidery: Buttonhole Cable Chain

1. Intro: Buttonhole Cable Chain: Hi, and welcome to Advanced embroidery. In this class, we're going to do a button hold cable chain stitch. Say that three times fast. Hi, my name is Beca Ron, and I'm a full time teaching artist coming to you here from my studio in Minneapolis. I use a lot of embroidery in my work, both stitching on fabric and on paper. So I love these more complex stitches that we're going to talk about in this class. So what is a button holed cable chain stitch? So it's a combination of several different basic embroidery stitches. So in a beginner embroidery class, you usually do the same kind of ten stitches that you learn. This advanced embroidery class is going to take those basic stitches which you might have already learned, combine them together, and make some more advanced stitches out of them. So this stitch, the button hold cable chain, combines a chain stitch with a little variation called a cable chain, and then you add a buttonhole stitch on top of it. The button hold cable chain is a great way to show off some of your favorite threads, especially if you've got some metallic or novelty threads. It uses the same basic materials that you've used for other embroidery, So fabric, some thread, scissors, and a needle. So if this sounds like a fun challenge, then let's jump into the next lesson and get started with the buttonhold cable chain. 2. Project & Materials: Your project for this class is to make a sample. It's pretty simple project, but the best way to learn these stitches is to actually sit and stitch them. So you want to practice over and over so that your hands kind of learn the movements to make. So you're going to make a sample with as many or as few stitches on it as you want to something like the one that I have going here. So you can try out some different kinds of thread, different spacing of stitches, take a great close up photo and post that to the project section for this class. So let's talk a little about what you need to make your project. So the first thing is, you will need a needle. Now, my favorite kind of needle, and I'll hold this up a little bit closer is a henle needle. I really love stitching with these because they have a really big eye, so they're easy to thread, and they have a nice sharp point. You can find henle needles in the craft and sewing section with the other kind of hand sewing needles. You look for the label henle. Once you have your needle, then you need to choose some thread. So you can use lots of different threads for this stitch. It will turn out a little bit different shape, depending on the thickness or the weight of the thread that you choose. So on my sample here, I have stitched some in six stranded embroidery thread. Those are kind of the thicker stitches that you see here on the top. And then on the bottom, I stitch some in size eight pearl cotton, which is a little bit finer weight. So you can choose whatever sort of thread speaks to you. So here's a couple of options. I'm going to stitch my samples in a six stranded embroidery thread. That's probably the most common kind embroidery thread, and I'm sure you've seen it before. For this stitch, I'm going to use all six strands together so that I've got a really thick thread that'll make this a very bold stitch. You can also choose to use a pearl cotton. So these are pearl cotton balls. This is a size eight, which is kind of a small size. You can also find them in thicker weights, a five or a three. In a solid color, you could try stitching one in a variegated color if you want to. And my last sample in the bottom here is in a variegated kind of autumn leaves color. Those are fun because then the color changes as you're stitching. You could also try a more challenging thread. So here are two kinds of examples. The one in my right hand is a thread called dazzle, which is a rayon and metallic blend, so it's a little bit thick. It's also kind of slippery, so it makes it a little challenging to stitch with, but it makes a really cool effect when you get done. And this is a thread called eco vita, which is made by DMC, and that is made from marina wool. So that's another option you could stitch this with that would work beautifully. Right, once you've got your needle and your thread, then you have to choose a fabric to stitch into. So for the example for class, I'm going to use this is called an even weave linen, and this is just a kind of embroidery fabric. The reason I like this one is it's got a little bit of stiffness to it, so it makes it really easy to stitch on. You can find this in the embroidery section, along with the cross stitch fabric and things like that. My personal favorite to stitch on actually, though, is a piece of wool and rayon felt. The reason I like felt is because it's got some thickness to it, and it helps you keep tension on your stitches. So it's hard to pull this too tight when you're stitching because of the thickness of the felt. So I actually think it really helps when you're first learning stitches. So you can also stitch on a scrap of felt. Okay. Then the other tools, you will need a pair of scissors, of course, to cut your threads. That's pretty straightforward. And if you want to do something in your samples like this circle, I traced around the bottom of a lid to a container. Using this is a friction pen by Pilot. This is a heat reactive ink. So I can draw on my fabric, trace around something, and use that as a stitching guide. And then all I have to do is hit it with an iron or even my hair dryer, something with some heat and that'll make the ink disappear. Um, so that's a great tool for marking if you want to make yourself a straight line to stitch on or anything like that. So that's kind of the set of tools you'll need to make your project. So go ahead and choose your fabric and your thread, and we'll get started in the next lesson. 3. Stitching the Buttonhole Cable Chain: This stitch is called a button hoold cable chain. And the name of the stitch, which is kind of a mouthful, tells you a lot about how the stitch is done. So we're going to start out with a foundation of a stitch called a cabled chain stitch. And cable chain is just a slight variation on a regular chain stitch. So chain stitch is one of those basic ones that you've probably done before. And to make it a cabled chain, we're going to add just a twist right before we do the stitch. So I'll go over how we do cabled chain in just a minute. Once we've laid down a foundation of cable chain, this stitch works in a second pass. So we're going to go back and actually make more stitches on top of that cable chain that we've laid down. So it's kind of a fancy stitch that works in two passes of the thread. Okay? So let's start out by stitching a cable chain. So you want to start out with a piece of thread. I'm going to stitch my sample in six stranded embroidery thread, and I'm going to use all six strands. So I'm going to go ahead and cut a nice piece and tie a knot. I've threaded my needle and I'm tying just a simple overhand knot in the other end. And I'm going to just start anywhere. I recommend you do this one kind of in a straight line to start out with. And then as you get to understand the stitch a little more, you can try some wavy lines and circles and things like that. So we're just going to start by doing a straight line of stitches. I'm going to bring my needle up just anywhere and pull it through till it stops at the knot. Okay, so we're going to start doing this just like a regular basic chain stitch, which you might have done before. But before we make the stitch, we're going to do a little twist of the thread. And this is a stitch that I think it's actually easiest if you lay this down on the table because you don't really have enough hands to be able to hold on to everything. So I'm going to wrap my thread going up over and around the needle. So I've made a wrap around the needle. I'm just going to hold on to that to make sure that it doesn't slip off or anything like that, and then I'm going to make a chain stitch. For a chain stitch, I'm going to bring my needle down right close to where it was coming out of the fabric and bring my needle up again. I'm going to pick this up now and just hold it up close so you can see close to the camera. I've done a down up. The length there that's between the down up of the needle, that's going to be how long my stitch is. Then I'm going to take my working thread. I'm going to wrap it around the back of the needle, just like you do with a regular chain stitch. And then I'm going to pull through. Again, just like a regular chain stitch. And when I pull that through, you're going to see back here when we made that little twist, we've got this little half knot that's formed there. Now, this very first one will look a little bit different than the next ones that we do. So let's do another stitch so you can see what this cable chain stitch looks like. So we're going to do a little twist of the thread first, and then we're going to make another basic chain stitch. So laying this down so I have some more hands to work with. I'm taking my thread and placing my needle here so that I can wrap my thread over the needle and hook around behind it. So I've got a twist. Then I'm going to put my needle down just a little bit ahead of where that last stitch finished off. On my fabric, that's about two threads away. So it's like the width of a toothpick. A little gap there. I'm going to go down up. I'm going to give my working thread just a little tug because the previous stitch often loosens up. I just want to tighten that up a little bit. Then I'm going to wrap my thread around the back of the needle I'm going to pull through. Now, between the two stitches, you'll see there's this little bar. This is supposed to look like chain links so that you've got some loops that are facing you, and then this little bar in between. Let's do another one of those. I'm going to lay it down on the table. I'm placing my needle just facing horizontally, I'm wrapping my working thread around under. I've got a twist around the needle. Then I'm going about a toothpick width above my previous stitch, making a down up Okay. I'm grabbing my working thread. Again, the working thread is the one coming out of the fabric, so you know you've got the right one. I'm tightening that last stitch up in case it got a little bit loose, and I'm wrapping underneath the tip of the needle and pulling through. Okay. You need to do a whole series of cable chains like this to lay the foundation for the rest of this stitch. I'm going to go ahead and just stitch about five or six more of these stitches till I get to the edge of my fabric. Thank. Maybe that was only three more stitches to get to the edge of my fab. I'm getting kind of close there. All right. To finish off a row of cable chain, you'll see that just like a chain stitch, your thread is coming up out of the center of one of those loops. So to finish it off, you're just going to make a little stitch to the outside of the loop. So there's a little kind of tack down stitch right at the edge, like so. And there is my row of cable chain. So I'm going to go ahead and tie that off on the back. Oh Okay, and trim that away. All right, so that is the first pass. The first part of our buttonhol cable chain. All right. So the next we're going to do is a second pass. We're going to stitch over top of the same stitches we just made, but we're going to do a buttonhole stitch kind of on top of those stitches. I'm actually going to grab another piece of thread. Mine was getting a little bit short. So I'm just going to get a fresh piece, the same color and prep the same way. I will thread my needle and tie a knot. I'm going to stitch this going the same way we stitch the cable chains. I'm going to start over here on the left side and work my way towards the right. I'm going to bring my needle up just to the top edge of that very first little half stitch, that little twist stitch that we made. I'm going to bring my needle up just right above that. So I'll hold that up close, right there. Okay. And we're going to do this stitch kind of one side at a time. So we're going to first buttonhole the top edge of all of these little loops of the cable chain, and then we're going to come back and we're going to do the bottom edge. So we're going to work it kind of down and back. Alright? We are now going to do some buttonhole stitches over that top thread. So once we've come through to the front of the fabric, this thread doesn't actually go back through the fabric again until we get all the way to the end. So we're just working into the previous stitches and not through the fabric. This part is stitch, it can be helpful to flip your needle around and actually use the eye end of it, kind of the blunt rounded eye to do the slipping between the stitches. It's easier to use that. You don't catch as many threads accidentally with a sharp point. So you can do that if that is helpful to you. So to do a buttonhole stitch, I'm going to slip the eye of my needle or the tip, either way, I'm going to go in to the inside of that loop that top loop Okay, so I've slipped into the inside of it and kind of out the top. And then I'm going to wrap my working thread, again, the one that's in the fabric underneath the tip of the needle or the eye of the needle. So I'm slipping it from left to right, so I just hooked underneath and then I'm going to push this through. It doesn't really feel like you've made much of a stitch. This first one, it's a loop. But if you've done buttonhole stitch before, this will look familiar. What we're doing is a buttonhole stitch, but around another thread. I think it's helpful to lay your thread down so that it's pointing the direction you're making the stitches and we're going to do another buttonhole stitch. I'm going in to the inside of the loop and popping the needle out, and then I'm wrapping my working thread under the tip of the needle and then pulling through. We're getting a little half hitch loop. The I haven't closed it up all the way. I'm going to pull on it and close it up all the way around that thread. We're going to continue making buttonhole stitches and fill up that circle, that loop. I can't tell you exactly how many stitches you'll need. It's based on how big your stitches are. I'm going to guess that mine will take about six. It's kind of what it looks like. So I'm going to just keep stitching until I get all the way over to the other side. So same thing. I'm gonna slip into the center and kind of park it, and then wrap my thread around the back, pull through. Slip into the center, wrap my thread around the back, pull through. So that's four stitches for me. Slip into the center, wrap around the back, pull through. And I think I can fit one more. I've got a little bit of a gap still. Slip in, wrap around the back. And pull through. And when you've filled up the entire top part of that kind of circle oval shape, you have enough stitches. So mine took six. It's how many filled up that top edge. Okay? Once you've got to the end of that half circle, you've got your little horizontal bar stitch, that part of the cable chain. You're going to skip over that, and you're going to start making buttonhole stitches in the next oval, the top of that one. So you basically just like bring your thread over. You don't make any stitch in that little horizontal stitch between the two. Now, one thing that you will notice is as you're stitching this, you are going to build up twist in your thread. It's going to start to twist back on itself, and that will make it tie itself in knots. I usually stop about once every loop, and I just hold my work up. I drop the needle and I let the twist fall out of my thread, and then I pick it up again and I start stitching. And so that way, you're not building up knots in your thread. Okay? So I'm going to keep doing buttonhole stitch the same way. I'm slipping into the next stitch. I'm wrapping my needle around the back or my thread around the back of the needle, pull through. I'm kind of pulling the stitch tight by pulling the thread away from me, so I'm not pulling it up, but I'm going away from me. I think that helps tighten them up and keeps them flat. So I slipped it through. Okay? There's two stitches. Slip it through, wrap the thread around, and then pull. Slip it through, wrap. That's four, I think. And if you've made your cable chains different sizes, you might need more or less stitches to fill them. Depends. Okay? There were six again for me. So there's the second one. Alright, I'm going to do one more slow. Again, I'm just skipping over that little bar stitch between the two, and I'm skipping on to my next one. I slip into the center and wrap behind. This stitch is a little bit bigger, so I might put seven stitches in this one. We'll see what it looks like when I get to six. You want it to look full. You want these stitches to nest right up against each other. You want that loop to look like it's full of stitches and you're covering up all the thread underneath. Yep, I feel like I need one extra stitch. This one was just a little bit bigger. So I'm going to do seven to fill up this section. Okay. I'm gonna continue stitching. The last three, the top edge of them, I'm just going to speed up the video slightly so you can stitch along with me and come back. Once again, I'm just going to let the twist out of my thread before I go on. Okay? And then I'll meet back here and I'll tell you how we turn the corner and we do the other half of these stitches. Okay, so I've finished the top loop of all of my stitches. You can actually stop here. If you like this look, this is kind of a half button hold. And I did a couple of examples here. So you can see on the right hand side here is a half button hold example in the green thread, and then here's a full button hold example on the other side. So on this one, we've just stitched the top and on this version, we've done the top and the bottom. So we're going to go on and do the top and the bottom of this one, but you can stop here if you like the way this looks. My thread has gotten a little bit short, so I'm actually going to tie off my thread right now. And to finish this, I'm actually going to do just like we did at the beginning. I'm going to bring my needle down just right next to that little horizontal bar stitch right at the end of the stitches. So I'm just making a little stitch down kind of right next to that little bar. Okay? And I'm going to tie that off on the back because I don't think I have enough thread to make it all the way back the other direction on my other side. And I don't want to splice thread in in the middle. So I'm going to tie that off. Okay, to work the second half, I actually think it's the easiest to just take your piece and turn it around the other way so that you're working the same way you were working before. We're now just going to work in the other half of the stitch, and I'm going to work the same direction. I'm going to go back again from the left and work to the right. So we start this the same way. I'm going to bring my needle up right next to that little bar stitch right at the end. And this should look familiar. You're going to do the same buttonhole just through the top edge of all of these stitches. Okay, so I'll just get started with a couple of stitches. Again, I'm slipping it through the center and then wrapping my thread around behind and pulling away from me and slightly to the left helps tighten it up. Once again, I'll speed up the video, so I can finish this row and then we'll meet back when we have finished filling in with all the buttonhole stitches. Okay, I have finished the buttonhole stitches on the other edge of my cable chain. I'm going to make a little stitch to the back right at the end to finish that off. And there is button hole cable chain stitched in six stranded embroidery thread. So in the next lesson, I'll talk about some variations and different things you can try with this stitch, and you can practice stitching and try out things for your sample. 4. Variations & Wrap Up: Okay, let's talk variations on the buttonhole cable chain. So here you can see examples done in six stranded embroidery thread on the top and sisatePearl cotton on the bottom. So you can see the one stitched in pearl cotton, it's a smaller thread. So the stitches are smaller. Two variations we talked about, the kind of wreath shape here on the top. I've only buttonholed one edge of it. So the outside has got the buttonholes, but the inside I left plain. So that's a variation where you half buttonhole. I did the same thing on the samples down here. So there's half button holed here and a full buttonhole on this side. Now, you can also try once you've kind of mastered the straight line, you can try doing a curved line or a circle, any other kind of shapes. In fact, I started stitching on my sample here. I'm making kind of a letter, like a letter B, so I've got that partially stitched. And I drew that out with my erasable marker here. So I had a guideline. So I'm going to stitch down my cable chain first, and then I'll go back over and do the buttonhole in that for my sample. I've also seen a really pretty variation on this where you go back and once all of the stitching is done, then you can stitch a bead in the center of each of these little openings, and it makes a really, like, fancy trim kind of looking effect by just stitching a bead in the center of each one of those openings. So this is awesome done in a metallic thread or something like that to make a really rich, like, trim look on especially holiday decor home deck, you could put this on the edge of place mats or something like that to make a really rich kind of braided, fancy trim edge. So I hope you had fun stitching the button hold cable chain. It's a great variation that is a combination of two of those basic stitches you probably learned in your very first beginning embroidery class. So I hope you'll join me for more advanced embroidery and have fun stitching.