The Cable Stitch is a perfect embroidery stitch for outline and for filling smaller spaces. It is also known as the side-to-side stem stitch. It creates a nice, thick outline stitch. This stitch is quick and easy, perfect for trimming a garment, or outlining major shapes in an embroidery project.
The cable stitch works well for straight and curved lines in your embroidery project. It is worked left to right with parallel lines of stitching. Stitch length can be varied for different looks. Use thicker threads for lines that really stand out, and smaller stitches if your line has strong curves.
How to make the embroidery cable stitch:
Start by bringing your needle up and then down to a short stitch to the left along your embroidery line. Bring the needle up to the side of that first stitch, half way through the length of the first stitch. The goal will be to have two lines of stitches next to each other along the embroidery line.
Here is the 2nd stitch. Make it the same length as the first stitch, and then bring the needle back at the end of the first stitch.
And, here is the 3rd stitch, and you can begin to see the pattern. It is a fun stitch to sew, and you get in a real rhythm.
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Now you can really see the cable stitch. A lovely thick outline that works well around curves.
The finished cable stitch circle on my embroidery sample!
And, a close-up . . . I used a variegated thread on this sample. It is one embroidered line, but the variegation makes it look like two threads.
Here is another small sample of the embroidered Cable Stitch.
Check out all of our embroidery projects on Create Whimsy!