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Sunday 19 November 2017

Sunday Stitch School - Lesson 44: Mille Fleur Stitch


It is time for another lesson of embroidery stitches here at Sunday Stitch School.

Today's stitch is an unusual one. The name, Mille Fleur Stitch, leads us to think it is a French stitch. However, I found it in Eva Köhlmark's Broderiboken, which is written in Swedish. I have not seen this stitch before, nor found its name anywhere else, in any book or on the internet.

I wonder where it got its name from. Obviously it has nothing to do with Millefleurs, the expression used for the background style of flowers seen on Flemish and French tapestries, e.g. The Lade and the Unicorn.

William Morris also used Mille Fleur; a sprinkling of flowers in the background of his designs.

Furthermore, Mille Fleur is the name of some carpets from Cashmere with floral designs.

You can read about the topics above, in this link: millefleur

Now, Eva Köhlmark's Mille Fleur Stitch is simply a tripple Lazy Daisy Stitch. When two LD stitches are work over each other you get the Berry Stitch (TAST 47),  in Mille Fleur you add one more detached Chain Stitch.

Anyone who has knowledge of this stitch, please leave a message in the Comment Box.

Updated:
Annet gave me this YouTube link where you can see how great the stitch looks when worked in variegated thread. In the video the stitch is called Triple Detached Chain Stitch.


Work it like this:

Make one Chain Stitch.


Anchor it.

 Make a new stitch outside the small Chain Stitch, and anchor it in the same way.

 Repeat with a third stitch.

It is easy to work, but hard to get even. Look at the unevenness on my Aida sampler.

As you can see, different colored threads can be mixed.

On my (new) SSS Reference Chart.

Homework:
Make something with the red fabric and goodies from the 'sweet box'.






13 comments:

  1. I haven't seen this stitch before, but I like it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like it, too, but it is not as easy as it seems. The loops tend to twist and turn as can be seen on the reference chart.

      Delete
  2. Mille Fleur Stitch est un nom français que l'on traduit par :
    thousand flowers,
    mais je n'ai rien trouvé en ce qui concerne ce point,
    je dirais :
    - point de marguerite triple ou triple point de bouclette
    puisque le point de bouclette double existe déjà
    Voilà, à la semaine prochaine
    Mattia

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. First Google Translate:
      Mille Fleur Stitch is a French name translated by:
      thousand flowers,
      but I did not find anything regarding this point,
      I would say :
      - Daisy point triple or triple loop point
      since the double loop point already exists
      That's it, next week

      I wonder why this stitch got the name Thousand Flowers, as there are only three loops for each petal.
      Whatever the name, It is a nice stitch!

      Delete
  3. It may in fact be a stitched homage to the glasswork technique called "millefiori", which involved colours combined in concentric rods of glass and assembled to create the impression of a carpet of flowers...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the info, I will have to read up on millefiori.

      Delete
    2. I now have read and seen, and realized that in my childhood home there was a paper weight of millefiori. The way the coloured circles are layered could well be the inspiration for this stitch, but the name does not fit.

      Delete
  4. I always think of mille fleur as cakes which incidentally have layers I suppose not unlike this stitch [sort of].

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The layers of the stitch could be seen as mille feuille, the delicious cakes made of flaky pasty which should consist of 'thousand leaves'.

      Delete
  5. I like the stitch in multi colors, I kind of think Rachel has a good insight into the name,
    Millefiori, concentric circles of colors.. a carpet of flowers.
    Nice work, Queenie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I liked the triple coloured stitch, too, then found a video where variegated thread is used, and that looks great, too.
      The glass art of Millefiori is exquisite - we had a paper weight in my childhood and I remember gazing at the patterns forever.

      Delete
  6. A lovely variation of the detached chain stitch. Just had a quick search and found a video tutorial of this stitch here:
    https://youtu.be/oj9yhtKwvic

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the link. The stitch looks especially good when worked in space dyed thread.
      I have updated the blog post with the video link.

      Delete

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