About RSN Stitch Bank
Double hem stitch
- Italian hem stitch
- double-rowed openwork
- Roumanian hemstitch
This stitch uses a version of hem stitch to join two parallel drawn thread apertures. A line of hem stitch is worked as normal and then a separate drawn thread area is created and a version of hem stitch is worked across both areas.
This stitch first appears in print in the early 20th century in Mrs Christie’s Samplers and stitches. Mary Thomas subsequently features the stitch under the name Italian hem stitch.
Double Hem Stitch is generously sponsored by Eithne Cummins in memory of her mother Mary D Cummins. An excellent seamstress and a pioneer of women’s health, she sewed beautiful garments including ball gowns for her daughter.
Method
Work an area of hem stitch.
Leave 3 or 4 threads intact above the aperture and create another drawn thread area (remove the same number of threads as the original aperture).
Starting at the top of the right hand end of the lower aperture, bring your thread up to the left of the first cluster of threads. Wrap your thread back over the cluster (to the right) and down into the aperture.
Bring your thread up in the top aperture, to the left of the first cluster and wrap it over the cluster to the right.
Bring it back up to the left of the first cluster and then down in the lower aperture between the first and second clusters to create a vertical stitch.
Bring the thread up to the left of the second cluster and wrap it, as before.
Bring the thread up in the top aperture, to the left of the cluster and continue grouping the threads in this way, alternating between the two apertures.
A finished line of double hem stitch.
The reverse of double hem stitch.
Double hem stitch
Common uses
Embroidery Techniques
Variant Stitches
Identifying Double hem stitch
This stitch can be identified by its parallel drawn thread areas both of which are pulled into groups by the stitch. The original area will have stitching along both edges of the drawn thread area which narrows the group at both ends; the second may only be stitched along the edge which is joined by stitches to the original area. The slant of the hem stitch is at a similar direction for both lines of stitching.