Heavy Chain Stitch


Heavy Chain Stitch is also known as

Heavy braid chain stitch [EN], Puntada de cadena pesada [ES], Point de chaînette cordé [FR], Dicker kettenstich [DE],  Punto catenella pesante [IT], Ponto cadeia sólido [PT].


How to do the Heavy Chain Stitch

As the name suggests, this is a heavy or thick looking chain stitch. It gives out a rich feeling, depending on the thread used to stitch. Like the Reverse Chain Stitch, this also follows a reverse direction. I will be stitching from top to bottom on a curvy stitch line. To do this stitch, you need to be aware of the Lazy Daisy Stitch.

Fig 1: Lay the foundation for this stitch by making a Lazy Daisy Stitch with the base as point A, as illustrated. Note that the ‘tail’ of the lazy daisy is slightly longer than the usual.Fig 2: Bring the needle out through B and take it under the tail of the first Lazy Daisy, without plucking the fabric.
Fig 3: Put the needle in through B, and we will get two layers of chain. Now, bring the needle out through C and take it under the first two chains without plucking the fabric.Fig 4: Take the needle in through C to create another layer of the chain. Bring the needle out through D and take it under the second and third chain. Keep continuing this procedure.
Fig 5: A finished line of heavy chain stitch would look like this. Note that, at any given point of time, we would always have two layers of chain. To create a third chain, always take the needle UNDER the first two chains.

Learn to do Heavy Chain Stitch in 2 minutes!


Use this stitch on a pattern

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Learn this stitch and 305 other stitches from our 600-page eBook. 


Related Stitches from the Chain Stitch Family

chain_stitch_index

Chain Stitch

whipped_chain_stitch_index

Whipped Chain Stitch

double_chain_stitch_index

Double Chain Stitch

magic_chain_stitch_index

Magic Chain Stitch

lazy_daisy_index

Lazy Daisy

russian_stitch_index

Russian Chain Stitch

long_tailed_daisy_index

Long Tailed Daisy

feathered_chain_stitch_index

Feathered Chain

basque_stitch_index

Basque Stitch

petal_chain_stitch_index

Petal Chain Stitch

reverse_chain_stitch_index

Reverse Chain Stitch

heavy_chain_stitch_index

Heavy Chain Stitch

braided_chain_stitch_index

Braided Chain Stitch

zig_zag_chain_stitch_index

Zigzag Chain Stitch

cable_chain_stitch_index

Cable Chain Stitch

twisted_chain_stitch_index

Twisted Chain Stitch

alternating_twisted_chain_index

Alternating Twisted

barred_chain_stitch_index

Barred Chain Stitch

alternating_barred_chain_index

Alternating Barred

rossette_stitch_index

Rosette Stitch

rope_stitch_index

Rope Stitch

tulip_stitch_index

Tulip Stitch

bulls_head_index

Bull’s Head Stitch

detached_wheatear_stitch_index

Detached Wheat Ear

wheater_stitch_index

Wheat Ear Stitch

oyster_stitch_index

Oyster Stitch

butterfly_chain_stitch_index

Butterfly Chain Stitch

raised_chain_band_index

Raised Chain Band

knotted_chain_stitch_index

Knotted Chain Stitch

knotted_cable_chain_index

Knotted Cable Chain

open_chain_stitch_index

Open Chain Stitch

back_stitched_chain_stitch_index

Back Stitched Chain Stitch

sinhalese_chain_stitch_index

Sinhalese Chain Stitch

crested_chain_stitch_index

Crested Chain Stitch

checkered_chain_band_index

Checkered Chain Band

zig_zag_cable_chain_stitch_index

ZigZag Cable Chain

Interlaced Chain

45 Responses

  1. C
    Camila says:

    Hey Sarah! I’ ve been surfing the internet for almost a month and I didn’t find anything like your site before. This is a gold mine!! I will be eternally grateful to you for being my teacher <3

    • Sarah says:

      Dear Camila,
      Thank you.❤️ We are always happy to hear how our new learners like our pages and enjoy learning from them. This website is a result of 15 years of research and a constant effort to provide easy and clear tutorials to anyone who loves to venture into this art. Your words are motivating and encouraging. ❤️

  2. B
    BB says:

    Thank you I mad a nice stich for my pouch design which my teacher told to make

  3. I have used #10 crochet thread to good effect on coarse linen with drawn-fabric stitches. (I tried to upload a jpg image, but it said “Sorry, you can only upload mages.” It was 260 KB.)

  4. M
    Mary Trask says:

    Can you tell us what kind of thread you used to get this look?

  5. R
    Rashmi K Ghanshani says:

    Figure no 4 doesn’t get cleared when I open this page of heavy chain stitch! Pls send this picture again as this stitch looks nice and I want to try this!

  6. H
    Harmonie says:

    I just tried this stitch for the first time and I love it! I think it’s going to get used quite often now!

    Thank you for your great tutorials. They are easy to follow and inspire me to try new stitches!

  7. A
    Ayesha says:

    This is very nice and easy stitch i really like this thanks

  8. Sarah says:

    Hi, I know this is really old, but I have a question about the heavy chain stitch. I love it, and find it pretty simple, but I can’t figure out where to start again when I run out of my floss/Perle cotton. It seems like I’m either going over one stitch an extra time or there’s a bit of a gap or sparser spot in that nice, heavy line. I feel like it should be intuitive, but I can’t figure it out! 🙂 Thank you.

    • sarah says:

      Dear Sarah,

      I hope you forgive me to respond this late. We were out on a long family vacation…sans the internet actually.

      To answer your question, you can refer the fig 3 in this tutorial.
      Say you finish your stitch at B when your thread finishes. When you begin again with a new thread, you come out from C, that is a little below where you finished earlier. Then, continue with the same sequence of going in through the earlier loop. I hope this gave you an idea. 🙂

  9. N
    Nancy says:

    Its really gud helpful to learn about more stitches can u give ur contact #

  10. S
    Surabhi says:

    Hi Sarah,

    I need to write a poem on a piece of cloth for my mother in law’s birthday. Will this stitch be a good option for making alphabets? Kindly suggest!

    PS: I am totally new to embroidery, but i am confident that i will be able to manage by reading your instructions, as it is very clear!

    • sarah says:

      wow, an entire poem. Since you are a beginner, try the back stitch. Take small stitches to help you in the curves of the alphabet. When done, try to post a picture of your work here. We would love to see. 🙂

  11. B
    Beena says:

    Dear Sarah
    I am a late visitor to your site,and really excited and happy to get embroidery tution from this.A lot of thanks to you…….

  12. t
    thaarika says:

    hi sarah
    yr site is reallllllllllyyyyyyy too good with easy to follow instructions.im also waiting to learn kutch work from yr site.

  13. P
    Pat says:

    I love this heavy stitch look? Will try it some time.

  14. m
    maham says:

    hey 🙂
    i really like ur tutorials as they hav helped me alot…i jst wanted to ask which sort of thread hav u used for this stitch….i tried it wth dmc and anchor but i am not gettin the same result as urs :/

    • sarah says:

      Hi Maham,
      Thanks for your comment. I have used perle cotton to demonstrate this lesson. Unlike the cotton floss you are using, perle cotton is a non divisible thread and comes in different thicknesses.

  15. P
    Preetha says:

    this ‘s one of my fav stitches…its simply beautiful….

  16. K
    Khurshid says:

    Hi Sarah,

    Thanks a lot for the tutorial on different stitches. It is very kind of you to share it with everyone. Its been very helpful.

  17. M
    Mitra says:

    I did an embroidery work and gave heavy chain stitch border . The border incresed the beauty of my work.\

    Thank you Sarah for teaching me all the stitches. I follow only your embroidery lessons. They are so easy to understand and work 🙂

    • sarah says:

      Dear Mitra,

      I am always happy when someone enjoys my lessons and feels that it has added happiness to their little hobbies. 🙂
      We are hoping to post a lot more stitches, but only once I get back home in January.

  18. p
    padmasenthilnathan says:

    sarah do u know about kuch work, brazilian embroidery, kasuthe work etc. if so is why cant u include it in this web page

    • sarah says:

      Hi Padma,

      The tutorials for the embroidery styles you have mentioned is in my list and ‘under construction’. Since these require detailed explanation, it will take some time before I could upload them with appropriate illustrations. So, just wait for a little while and all of them will show up in time. 🙂

  19. rocksea says:

    looks very much braided! i like it 🙂

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