How To Do The Heavy Chain Stitch

The heavy chain stitch is an embroidery stitch that is in the chain stitch family. It is thicker than a regular chain stitch.
This stitch looks great borders, outlines, and anything that you want to look braided. It is very similar in appearance to the Hungarian braided chain stitch. Both of these stitches are worked somewhat similarly.
Heavy Chain Stitch Tutorial

- Make a small straight stitch (A).
- Skip ahead slightly and come up through the fabric at B. Place your needle under the straight stitch you made at C.
- Come back down through the fabric in the same hole you came up through at D.
- Skip the same amount of space again and come up through the fabric at E. Place your needle under the small straight stitch at F.
- Go back down through the fabric at G.
- Skip the same amount of space and come up through at H. Place your needle under the previous chain stitch you made at I.
- Repeat steps 5-6 the desired length.

Tips
The biggest pointers I have for this stitch are to keep the amount of space you skip to make each of the chain stitches even. Don’t make these stitches too long or you will lose the nice shape of the heavy chain stitch.
You can use stranded embroidery floss or pearl cotton floss for this stitch. Both look great with it.
<< Back To All Embroidery Stitches
Amanda is a hand embroidery teacher and artist. With over 15 years of experience in the craft industry and embroidery, she owns and runs Crewel Ghoul, sharing accessible tutorials and patterns to help inspire fellow crafters to get creative. In addition to running this website, she teaches on Skillshare and Youtube.