buttonhole stitch

The tradition & historical record

Buttonhole stitch and the related blanket stitch are hand-sewing stitches used in tailoring, embroidery, and needle lace-making. ¹

Traditionally, this stitch has been used to secure the edges of buttonholes. In addition to reinforcing buttonholes and preventing cut fabric from raveling, buttonhole stitches are used to make stems in crewel embroidery, to make sewn eyelets, to attach applique to ground fabric, and as couching stitches. Buttonhole stitch scallops, usually raised or padded by rows of straight or chain stitches, were a popular edging in the 19th century. Buttonhole stitches are also used in cutwork, including Broderie Anglaise, and form the basis for many forms of needlelace. This stitch is well represented on 16th- and 17th-century whitework items. The buttonhole stitch appeared on the Jane Bostocke sampler (1598) which is the earliest, signed sampler known to date and is presently housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. ¹

Examples of buttonhole or blanket stitches include: ¹

Blanket stitch Buttonhole stitch Closed buttonhole stitch, in which the tops of the stitch touch to form triangles ¹

Virginia Churchill Bath, Needlework in America, Viking Press, 1979 ISBN 0-670-50575-7 S.F.A. Caulfield and B.C. Saward, The Dictionary of Needlework, 1885. Mrs. Archibald Christie. Samplers and Stitches, a handbook of the embroiderer's art, London 1920, 1989 facsimile: Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-4796-6. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Buttonhole stitch”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

buttonhole stitch is stitch to reinforce edges or for decoration, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 4 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²