Couching is the method used to attach a thread or group of threads to fabric when they are too thick, too highly textured or too fragile to be stitched through the fabric.  A second thread, normally finer, is used to stitch over the couched thread, thus anchoring it to the fabric.  The name comes from the French word coucher, meaning to lay down.

The earliest evidence of Couching is from Egypt in the 4th century AD where excavations revealed fabric couched with yellow wool designs .  Finds in both Mammen, Denmark and from the nomadic Qidan people of northeast Asia dated to the end of the first millennium both provide further evidence of the use of couching.

More recently, in Japan Couching was particularly used in the Muromachi period (1392-1568) for Bugaku (dance) garments;  from the Ming to Quing dynasties it was used in China for embroideries based on ink brush paintings;  and also as an outlining technique in the Ming dynasty.  Countries as widespread as Palestine, Thailand and Ethiopia all use couching in their embroidery traditions