clear navigate_before

Griffin stitch icon
Griffin stitch

  • Griffin filling stitch
Griffin stitch main image

This open filling stitch is an intricate trellis stitch.  It is made up of both square and diagonal trellises, tied where the diagonals cross and embellished with interlaced circles where the uprights and the diagonals cross each other.

This stitch first appears in print in the 1970s but it is unclear where the name originates.

add_circleMy Stitches
Composite Trellis Crossed Laid Pattern Tied Open Filling Surface Counted Thread Crewelwork

Griffin stitch is generously sponsored by Elizabeth Adams

Method

You can vary the effect by increasing the length of the couching stitches and changing the colours used for each part of the stitch.
You may find it easier to swap to a tapestry needle for weaving the circles.

pan_tool
1
Griffin stitch method stage 1 illustration
Griffin stitch method stage 1 photograph
1

Work an evenly spaced square trellis grid but do not couch the intersections.

Trellis
2
Griffin stitch method stage 2 illustration
Griffin stitch method stage 2 photograph
2

Overlay the square trellis with another square trellis, rotated 45 degrees so the threads lie on the diagonal and cross the intersections of the original trellis.

3
Griffin stitch method stage 3 illustration
Griffin stitch method stage 3 photograph
3

Where the diagonal threads cross in the centre of the squares, tie them down with a small vertical couching stitch.

4
Griffin stitch method stage 4 illustration
Griffin stitch method stage 4 photograph
4

Where the square and diagonal trellises intersect, bring your thread up under one of the trellis threads and weave it under the square threads and over the diagonal threads to form a circle.

5
Griffin stitch method stage 5 illustration
Griffin stitch method stage 5 photograph
5

Repeat this for all of the intersections.

6
Griffin stitch method stage 6 illustration
Griffin stitch method stage 6 photograph
6

A completed area of griffin stitch.

Griffin stitch

Structure of stitch

Composite Trellis Crossed Laid Pattern Tied

Common uses

Open Filling

Embroidery Techniques

Surface Counted Thread Crewelwork

Related Stitches

Trellis

References

  • Mary Thomas, Jan Eaton, Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches (Revised Edition) (1989) , p.94
  • Anne Butler, The Batsford Encyclopaedia of Embroidery stitches (1979) , p.293