gingham chicken scratch cat patterns free download Design your CHICKEN SCRATCH EMBROIDERY Patterns with these 4 stitches. Chicken scratch embroidery – the name itself is so curious. Nothing to do with real chicken scratches of course. Unless you count the way you do embroidery or someone else judging it so. Mine does, especially when I tangle my threads midway. This chicken scratch, though, is beautiful and evenly done. The uniformity of stitches is part of the charm of this work. Chicken Scratch embroidery is a type of embroidery done on gingham fabric (Chequered fabric). The even squares of the gingham fabric form a pattern of its own for the work. The chicken scratch embroidery can make your finished gingham fabric look like you have added lace on top of it. There are many types of gingham fabric according to the size of the squares – some with small squares, some big, some with slightly oblong shaped squares. You will have to ensure that the gingham fabric you have has perfect squares for this embroidery to work. 4 stitches used in chicken scratch embroidery. 1. Double cross stitch ( Smyrna cross stitch) This is a cross stitch done twice over. 2 Straight running stitch. These stitches are done over the colored squares, leaving the white squares blank. 3 Woven circle stitch. This stitch is done by weaving thread under the running stitches to create the circle, usually on the white squares. 4 Loop stitch. This is another woven stitch with a straight stitch connecting two stitches. What kind of thread is used for chicken scratch embroidery? Usually, ordinary embroidery floss in white is used to do this embroidery. If you have to introduce color make it a darker shade than the fabric . You can use two or three strands of embroidery thread for the cotton gingham cloth. You can add beautiful flower embroidery alongside this work to enhance it in complementary colors. Needle used for chicken scratch work. An ordinary embroidery needle is used for doing running stitches and cross stitch. The loop stitch and woven circle stitch are woven with a blunt needle. Chicken scratch design. This work is usually done as a border embroidery. But you can copy any design to work this embroidery. Broad outlines are used for this work. If you are designing a border design, Start to count the number of squares in the design area. This is necessary before you decide on how you will fill the area. You always need 4 straight stitches meeting around a square for the woven circle stitch. You can design your own chicken scratch for filling a broad outline the following way. Draw the design on a grid paper. Find the center of the design you have and design it so that with every 4 running stitches intersects on a square- usually, this is a white square. But when it is a colored square a different effect is created. Double cross stitches are the first stitches made. This is usually used to make outlines. Mark running stitches. Then the woven circles and then the loop stitches are marked. The running stitches are worked over the colored / white squares. How to do Chicken scratch embroidery – Border design. Place the fabric you have in the hoop. This is important so that you get an even tension to all the stitches. The double cross stitch is worked on alternative squares. Then the running stitch is worked. See that the running stitches intersect around a white square for woven stitches. After this, the woven stitch is done. Loop stitch is done then. This embroidery can be done on fabric other than gingham – they work beautifully as border design for any kind of fabric. Checkout the tutorial for boxy top for more details. How To Embroider on Gingham – Chicken Scratch Tutorial. Today, a little tutorial for embroidery on gingham, or chicken scratch . Chicken scratch is suited to any level of embroiderer, but, due to its simple nature and pleasing results, it’s an especially nice technique for beginners and even for children. You can make up your own patterns for gingham embroidery, or you can look around online for pattern sources or inspiration from vintage aprons, household linens, and so forth. You’ll find two patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread for chicken scratch: Floral Corner #1 and Floral Corner #2, both of which can be used as corner designs, or can be easily adapted for straight edges. Materials & Tools for Chicken Scratch Embroidery. Gingham Fabric: For adults or older youth who have their motor skills under control, any size of gingham will work, from 1/2″ down to 1/16″ micro check fabric. For younger children, 3/16″ and 1/4″ or larger gingham would be easier to handle. Many proficient chicken-scratchers like to use homespun gingham, which has a slightly coarser appearance to it, usually has no discernible front or back, and has more equally “square” checks to it. (Most gingham cotton features slightly rectangular checks.) Homespun is nice for casual table cloths – I always associate it with picnics! Threads: Gauge the threads to the size of the check. On 1/8″ gingham, I use coton a broder #20 in white for the foundation stitches, coton a broder #25 and cotton floche for colored lacing stitches (sometimes using two strands of either, for elements I want to accent), and coton a broder #16 for the white lacing stitches. You can substitute regular cotton floss, too – just try different weights and combinations, to see what works best. Higher numbered (finer) perle cottons (8 and 12) will work well for foundation stitches on 1/8″ gingham. With larger checks, heavier perle cottons (3 and 5) are a good choice for foundation stitches. Tools: You’ll need a hoop, since tensioning the stitches correctly is very important. If your stitches are too loose, they can look floppy (especially on larger checks). If your stitches are too tight, the fabric will pucker. For needles, you’ll want crewel embroidery needles in whatever size works well with the thread you choose, and you’ll also want a tapestry needle that will fit any of the threads you’ll use for the lacing stitches. With the threads I’ve been using on the designs I’ve been showing you, I find a #7 or #8 crewel needle works well for the foundation stitches, and a #26 tapestry needle works fine for the lacing stitches. A pair of scissors is always a good thing to have on hand when doing any kind of embroidery, and for chicken scratch, you’ll also want a pattern, unless you’re just fiddling about for the fun of it. Following the Pattern & Working in the Hoop. I work with a 4″ embroidery hoop on the 1/8″ gingham, and I always work as much of the design as will fit in the hoop before I move the hoop. So I work all the foundation stitches and all the lacing stitches that fit inside the hoop area, before moving the hoop to work another area. I break down my design into sections. So, using this design, I’m going to start in the corner for this tutorial (notice that the corner foundation stitch in the design is on a dark check in the fabric), and break up the sections on the pattern in a way that makes sense to me while I work them out. First, I started with the lower corner area and worked the outline foundation double cross stitches around that small corner (highlighted in the photo above), followed by the inside foundation cross stitches. Then, I moved on to the foundation stitches for the sections highlighted above, because that’s about all that would fit in my hoop. After working all the foundation stitches, I then when back and laced them to make the designs. Working the Foundation Stitches. Begin with an away waste knot, so that you don’t have a knot on the back of your fabric. (If you’re working with children, it’s easier just to let them use a knot on the back. They can graduate to the away waste knot once they’ve gotten their feet wet!) Some chicken scratchers like to work each stitch individually. You can certainly do that, and, on larger gingham checks, I would advise working each foundation stitch completely before moving on to the next one, so that you don’t have a lot of long threads crossing often on the back. But with small checks, I adapt the typical cross stitch method and work the stitches in layers. So, starting from that lower left corner, this is the direction my stitches took, to work the first layer of the double cross stitches. The green dot indicated my starting point, and the black arrows indicate the direction the thread is traveling on the back of the fabric, to make each new half cross stitch. The green arrow indicates where I started the return journey, to cross over the stitches and turn them into cross stitches. When I arrived at the diagonal line, I crossed over every other stitch on the return journey. Here, you can see that the two perpendicular sides of the triangle are complete cross stitches, made on the return journey, while the hypotenuse is crossed on every other stitch. The journeys you make to work out each section of the design are really just common sense. Follow a path that makes sense and that keeps the back of the work as neat as possible, without creating very long stitches on the back of the work while you move from area to area. Now it’s time to turn the stitches into double cross stitches, by crossing over them with an upright cross stitch. Work each upright cross stitch so that the top stitch is always going in the same direction, in this case, from left to right. End each upright cross stitch on the side that is closest to your next stitch, so that the jump between the two stitches is short. Your work will look much better if all your uppermost stitches on each double cross stitch and cross stitch is oriented in the same direction. So, for this piece, all my uppermost stitches on the double cross stitch are horizontal. Heading up the hypotenuse of the triangle, I’m crossing the half cross stitches that were left behind on the second journey above, and working the upright cross stitch over them, all in the same pass. By the time I reach the last stitch (right above the first stitch on the left side of the triangle), all my stitches are now double cross stitches, and the uppermost stitch on each double cross stitch has the same horizontal orientation. After finishing this little outlined area, I had just enough thread left (good planning!) to work the foundation cross stitches in the middle of this area. So, in go the cross stitches, working them has half cross stitches in that first row of two, starting on the left next to the last double cross stitch and returning to the left, and then stepping up to the one above and working it by itself. Notice that the uppermost stitch on the cross stitches all cross in the same direction. So that’s how I work the foundation stitches in each section, mapping out paths that make sense, until all the foundation stitches in a particular section are worked. From this point, I went on to work the foundation stitches in the flowery diamond area of the design (all of which are double cross stitches), and then the foundation stitches in the other adjoining white lace area. Again, I work whatever fits in the hoop, breaking the design up in chunks that make sense. Here, you can see that all the white foundation stitches are worked for this area, which fit within the hoop. Then, I worked the yellow foundation stitches that form the centers of the flowers. These are worked in double cross stitch, too. Working the Lacing Stitches. And now it’s time to do the lacy parts. At this point, switch to a tapestry needle. The blunt tip of the tapestry needle works better with the lacing stitches, because it won’t catch on the foundation stitches. I used two strands of coton a broder 25 in purple for the flowers. Bring the needle to the front just to the side of the corner of the yellow foundation stitch where the inside tip of the petal should be. Pass underneath the corners of the foundation stitches that hold the petal in shape. In the pattern, you can see where these corners are, because the petal element just touches them in the pattern. Don’t pick up any fabric as you lace under these corners. The corners of the foundation stitches will hold the shape of the petals in place. Once you’ve passed under both corners, going up under one and down under the corner across from it (as shown above), you’ll take your needle down into the fabric on the other side of the yellow corner stitch, right next to where you first emerged to make the petal (shown by the green dot in the photo above). The green leaves are made in the same way – coming up on one side of the corner stitch where the leaf originates (the pointed part of it), passing under the corner stitch indicated in the pattern to hold the leaf shape in place, and going right back down on the other side of the corner stitch where you first emerged. Once all the flower and leaf stitches are finished, move on to the white lacing stitches in the adjacent sections. The white lacing stitches are made in the same way as the flowers, following the path to each anchor stitch, as indicated in the pattern. Bring your needle up slightly under and next to one corner of the foundation stitch on any corner of the white square. Pass the needle and thread under the three anchor stitch corners that will hold the square shape in place, and then take the needle down into the fabric underneath the first anchor stitch, where you first emerged to make the square. If you must pass any distance across the back of the fabric to get to the beginning of the next lacy square, turn your work over and take your needle and thread underneath the backs of the stitches that are already there, so that you don’t have any long threads trailing across the back of the embroidery. When you’re finished with a thread, turn the work over and weave the thread under the backs of the stitches already there. You can make a kind of hitch knot around the backs of the stitches, if you need to, to secure the thread. The most “difficult” part to chicken scratch (and it really isn’t difficult!) is working out sensible paths to travel while working the foundation stitches. Once you’re familiar with the design elements, working any repeated areas becomes even easier, because after you work through an element once or twice, you won’t really need to refer to the pattern anymore. I hope you find this tutorial useful and that you have the opportunity to enjoy a little light hearted stitching on gingham sometime soon! I have a few other chicken scratch patterns on the doodle board, so I’ll trickle those out to you in the future. Cross Stitch Basics: Chicken Scratch Embroidery. Stitch between the lines with chicken scratch embroidery. Pin Share Email. It's likely you have come across chicken scratch embroidery some time in your life. There are many aprons, pillowcases, or curtains with a chicken scratch design on it. It was a very popular style from the 1930s to the 1950s. You may also see the design on vintage baby clothes. What Is Chicken Scratch Embroidery? Chicken scratch embroidery is a traditional embroidery style that is regaining popularity. It shares many stitches in common with cross stitch, but the fabric used for chicken scratch is typically gingham fabric. Another name for chicken scratch embroidery is Amish embroidery, depression lace, or snowflake embroidery. This is mainly due to the design the stitching makes. They look like lace or snowflakes along the gingham fabric. This style of stitching a very cheap version of creating a lace look for less. That is why you will see it on the edging of material. The reason that chicken scratch is used mainly on gingham is that during the depression, gingham was a very cheap fabric. It is also easy to follow as a guide for cross stitches. Any size or color of gingham may be used. Supplies Needed for Getting Started. Gingham Material (sharp with a large eye) Chicken Scratch Pattern. Stitches to Know. Double Cross Stitch, also known as Smyrna Cross Stitch Running Stitch Woven Circle Stitch. Getting Started. Before stitching, determine the count of the gingham fabric using a ruler. Then, cut the fabric to the desired size. Chicken scratch is usually done with two colors of floss. White floss and floss the same color as or slightly darker than the color of the fabric is typical. Experiment with using different colors as you desire. When stitching the design, the white floss is stitched on the colored gingham squares and the coordinating colored floss is stitched on the white squares. Refer to the pattern chart for guidance on stitch placement and color. The number of strands of floss you will need will depend on the size of the gingham fabric. Experiment on a scrap of fabric to see what looks best. Unlike cross stitch, you may want to use a knot to secure the floss when stitching. Complete each stitch as you go when working the design. Watch stitch tension or the fabric will become puckered. Use a hoop to help with maintaining the proper fabric tension. Free Chicken Scratch Practice Patterns. There are so many designs and patterns for chicken scratch embroidery, including hearts, flowers, and borders. While the traditional chicken scratch is done with all one color, usually white or red gingham, in today's cross stitch world many are using different colors such as purple flowers with green leaves weaved into the white monochrome border. The wonderful thing about using gingham is that you already have a grid to follow for your stitching. The various stitches work around the gingham pattern. Chicken Scratch Repairs and Ideas. Chicken scratch embroidery is also an excellent way to save a fabric or a design. You can repair the fabric as you usually would with a few simple stitches and then stitch a chicken scratch pattern over that repair. This not only gives the repair added strength but also covers up the repair in a beautiful way. This is a great idea for dresses or jeans with holes. You simply can add a gingham patch and then chicken scratch embroidery on the patch itself. It will create an adorable retro feel. It can also be used to create the illusion of lace on a dress or give kitchen towels a cute retro look. How to Stitch a Leafy Border in Chicken Scratch Embroidery on Gingham. Gingham lace, chicken scratch, gingham embroidery, snowflake embroidery, Depression lace – whatever you want to call it, embroidery on gingham, using a combination of cross stitches, double cross stitches and laced stitches, is an endearing, easy, cheerful type of needlework! While it’s often seen worked on 1/4″ gingham or larger, I like working gingham lace in miniature, on 1/8″ gingham. The smaller gingham makes for a more delicate design that looks great on children’s clothing, household goods, and other accessories made out of gingham. Anything we do here, though, can also be worked on 1/4″ gingham or larger – just remember to increase the weight or thickness of the thread, to compensate for the larger stitches. If you’ve never dabbled in chicken scratch but you want to – after all, summer is a perfect time to sport some gingham for picnics and parties – you’ll find several tutorials and patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread for gingham embroidery. Today, I’ll show you step-by-step how to work a leafy border in gingham embroidery, that’s perfect for dressing up your chicken scratch with a little color and flair! While I’m calling this particular design element a leafy border, you can always change the color up and make it a floral border or just an interesting border for chicken scratch embroidery – it doesn’t have to be floral, it doesn’t have to be leafy. You can also mix up the way you lace the petal shapes or ovals, to produce other designs. Once you know the principle of what’s going on with the stitches, you can play around with the concept and develop your own variations. Materials. The materials used for this particular tutorial are: 1/8″ cotton gingham check fabric DMC stranded cotton in white and green #8 crewel needle & #24 or 26 tapestry needle. Step-by-Step Instructions. To begin, you’ll need to know how to work the two basic stitches that form the foundation of all gingham embroidery, the cross stitch and the double cross stitch. They’re not difficult! Foundation Stitches for Gingham Embroidery. For this particular design, I’m working my cross stitch and double cross stitch foundations in white on the darkest squares of the gingham. Where you choose to work your foundation stitches, and what color you use to stitch them, will change the whole finished look of your embroidery, so you might test different approaches to see what look you prefer. Using a crewel needle with two strands of DMC floss in it, bring the needle and thread to the front in the lower left corner of the square (A) and take it down in the upper right corner (B) to create a diagonal straight stitch. Bring the needle and thread to the front at C and take it down at D, crossing over the first diagonal straight stitch to form an X. Voilá! You’ve completed a cross stitch! For the double cross stitch, work a vertical straight stitch from the top center line of the square to the lower center line of the square (A to B), over the middle of the previous cross stitch. Work a horizontal straight stitch perpendicular to the first, starting in the center side of the square and crossing over all stitches to the opposite center side of the square. Voilá! It’s a double cross stitch! You’re now a pro at the foundation stitches for gingham embroidery, so let’s move on to the leafy clusters. Looped Leafy Clusters on Gingham Embroidery. To work the leafy border, you’ll need to work one line of double cross stitch on the dark squares at the outermost edge of the area you’re embroidering. Above that line (skipping one line of gingham squares), you’ll need to work at least one line of regular cross stitch directly above the double cross stitches. In the photo below, you can see what I mean. I’ve worked several lines of regular cross stitch above the double cross stitch boarder, but technically, you only need two lines of foundation stitches to work this technique. Switch to a tapestry needle and thread up two strands of green DMC floss. Bring the needle up at A, behind the lower left leg of the first cross stitch in the row above the double cross stitches, as shown in the photo above. Take the tapestry needle under the upper right leg of the double cross stitch below and over one on the double cross stitch row, at B, as shown in the photo above. You won’t pick up any fabric here – you’re just running the thread under this leg. Return to A from the top left, and run your needle under the leg, without picking up any fabric, as shown above. Now, run your needle and thread under C, the upper left leg of the double cross stitch directly below A. Don’t pick up any fabric! Return back to A, passing under the lower left leg of the cross stitch, moving the needle from lower right to upper left, as shown above. Take the needle and thread behind D – the lower right leg of the next cross stitch to the left – to create the last loop on the three leafy petals. Now, take your needle and thread down into the fabric behind A, to complete the three petal loops. Move to the next cross stitch, starting the next group of three petals behind the lower left leg, and repeat the process. Continue down the line, creating as many groups of three lacy loops as necessary to finish your border. Once you get the rhythm down, creating the three laced loops goes quite quickly! You can use this lacing loop technique to create all kinds of petal-like arrangements in chicken scratch embroidery! More Information on Gingham Embroidery. For more information and tutorials on chicken scratch, plus several free patterns that include these leafy clusters, feel free to visit my Gingham Embroidery Tutorial Index, here. Coming up, I’ll share a free pattern for a gingham watermelon design that was previously published on DMC, but has been archived over there. I’ll give you a brief run-down on how to work it, too, in case you want to embroider your own gingham watermelons for summer decor! Gingham chicken scratch cat patterns free download. Last Friday afternoon the red gingham fabric I ordered for my chicken scratch embroidery project came in the mail from fabric.com. When I was ordering it, I wasn’t sure whether to get fabric with 1/8″ squares or 1/4″ squares. The 1/8″ squares seemed awfully small to me, so I went with 1/4″ squares so I could really see the stitches on the fabric. I cut a piece about 10″ x 10″ for this project, and I used a free chicken scratch embroidery pattern from Pegasus Originals which is available on their website. From what I understand (and I could be totally wrong here), traditional chicken scratch consists of three basic stitches: double cross-stitch, straight running stitch, and woven circle stitch. The free heart pattern from Pegasus Originals uses only these stitches. I started by stitching the double cross-stitches for the outline of the heart using the red floss and starting on a white square on the gingham fabric. I could have tried to stitch the double crosses and the running stitches and the woven circle stitches all together in the interior of the heart, but I decided to tackle each stitch separately. So, after I completed the double crosses in red, I stitched the double crosses in white for the inside of the heart. Next, I stitched all of the straight running stitches until I got to this point: The pattern does not suggest specific thread colors, but I used DMC 321 for the red and DMC White for, well, the white. I also stitched using 3 strands of thread because of the size of the squares. Finally, I stitched the woven circle stitches through all of the running stitches. The completed sample looks like this: This project worked up really fast, and it was very relaxing to do. Although some guidelines for chicken scratch recommend using a sharp crewel needle for stitching, but I just used a size 24 tapestry needle. The gingham fabric was so thin that the needle went through easily. I didn’t have any problems. The only tricky thing was anchoring the threads on the back. I admit I may have used a knot or two out of laziness. So, huzzah, I have my sample done well before my September guild meeting, with plenty of time to spare to iron and finish it. The hart is about 5″ square, so it may make a nice little pillow.