Roman Stitch

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Roman Stitch
To continue this discussion, proceed to Couching Part Two – Romanian Stitch
Simple to work, beautiful results. As in laid work, these stitches can be used for large design areas not suitable for
satin stitch. The results create rich texture and interesting patterns, depending upon how you employ them. You
can also use them effectively in medium-sized and small motifs as well as bands and borders.
General Directions: You will need to use a hoop or frame to maintain constant tension. The stitches show off to full
advantage when used with medium to heavy-weight threads. Pearl cotton 5 or 8 or Kanagawa silk are excellent
choices. Three strands of floss also show them off to advantage. For fine work, one strand of floss or a fine twisted
silk works as well. Any ground is suitable, although regionally, certain grounds were employed. Use longer lengths
of thread than you would ordinarily employ, otherwise you will constantly have to begin and end threads.
The stitch is worked right to left. Left-handed embroiderers will reverse this procedure.
Bring needle out at the bottom of the line of stitching (red arrow).
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08/04/2020 Roman Stitch - heritageshoppe.com
With the thread kept to the left, the needle goes straight up and then down at 2 (the top of the motif) and comes
back out at 3.
Make a 90-degree tie-down stitch at the center. It should be snug, but not overly so.
Come back up at the bottom for the next long stitch.
According to Linn Skinner of Skinner Sisters Designs, this stitch was used in very early samplers along with rice
stitch.
It can also be used to fill areas that require a central line, such as leaves. Also, the long stitches can be curved
slightly (reference Mary Thomas’s “Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches”) to use in objects such as leaves – or
borders.
According to some, the difference between Roman stitch and Romanian stitch is the angle of the couching stitch.
Some feel with Roman stitch, the tie-down stitch is exactly perpendicular at the center. Any other angle puts it in
the Romanian stitch category. However, from all examples I have found, the difference is the length of the
couching stitch. Later in this article, I discuss why I feel this is a good boundary line for the two stitches.The
following graphics show the workings. The illustrations don’t show off the center couched stitch to advantage.
Once we move from a single couching stitch to multiple couches across an area, the term Roman stitch is
changed and different “couching” names and techniques ensue.
It is my opinion, and not shared by everyone, that the following embroideries belong in the category of Roman
stitch derivatives because of the tiny couching stitch used, sometimes at a very slight angle, sometimes quite
perpendicular to the long laid stitch.
The example at left is a type of Bokhara couching shown in the Ballentine Pattern Library of Embroidery Stitches.
This unusual example shows the long threads first laid and the couching threads form a straight row – several
across the larger area being stitched. Bokhara couching, in my opinion, is a variation of Roman stitch. Note the
very nubby texture of the embroidery.
The example at left (from Pamela Clabburn’s encyclopedia) is a different example of Bokhara couching. The
couching threads form a diagonal pattern along the long lengths of laid threads.
According to Clabburn, Bokhara (also spelled Bukhara) is a city in Uzbekistan (north of Afghanistan) which has
always been known for its embroideries. She notes, “the designs have a great similarity to Iranian (Persian) ones
and are often of formalized flowers, singly or in bunches, worked in colored silks on linen.”
This example is from from Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches. The couching stitches in this motif
create a brick pattern. In areas too small to couch, satin stitch is used.
Colcha Embroidery hails from New Mexico and is made of a wool ground and two strands of wool yarn. It is a
Spanish term for quilt or bedspread and also used to define embroidered hangings and covers made by the
Spanish colonial settlers in New Mexico.
Clabburn considers it in a category of Rumanian couching. I disagree because of the short, perpendicular
couching stitches used and the resultant pattern of the couching stitches (see Ballentine example).
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08/04/2020 Roman Stitch - heritageshoppe.

To continue this discussion, proceed to Couching Part Two – Romanian Stitch

Come back up at the bottom for the next long stitch.

© 2014 - Heritage Shoppe | Site design by Kanen Designs Pharmacy Canada

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