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Box and diagonal stitches · Easy

Corduroy stitch

Vertical stripes: a narrow column of tent stitches, one canvas thread wide, beside a wide column of longer stitches that lean the opposite way.

Corduroy stitch: the finished stitch on canvas, 42 stitches, some slanting up to the left and some slanting up to the right, in two colors
The finished stitch on canvas. The narrow columns are in one color and the wide columns in the other, only to tell them apart. In the steps, new stitches are red, and the numbers give the order: up at an odd number, down at the next even one.

How to work it

  1. Make the first tent stitch

    Corduroy stitch, step 1: the first stitch on the canvas. Numerals 1 and 2 mark its ends, in working order.

    Start at the top left corner of the area. Come up one hole to the right of the corner hole and one down, and go down in the corner hole. This is a reverse tent stitch: it leans up to the left.

  2. Work down the narrow column

    Corduroy stitch, step 2: eight stitches on the canvas, the seven this step adds in red. Numerals 3 to 16 mark the ends of the new stitches, in working order.

    Come up in the hole straight below the start of the first stitch and go down one hole up and to the left. Continue to the bottom of the area, one tent stitch under another. This is the narrow column.

  3. Work up the wide column

    Corduroy stitch, step 3: 15 stitches on the canvas, the seven this step adds in red. Numerals 17 and 18 mark the ends of the first new stitch, in working order.

    Come up in the hole where the last tent stitch began and go down two holes up and two to the right. Bring each wide stitch after it up one hole higher, where the tent stitch beside it began. Stop with the one that ends in the top row of holes.

  4. Add the next narrow column

    Corduroy stitch, step 4: 23 stitches on the canvas, the eight this step adds in red.

    Come up one hole down and to the right of the hole where the last wide stitch ended, and go down into that hole. Work tent stitches down the column as before.

  5. Fill the area, pair by pair

    Corduroy stitch, step 5: 38 stitches on the canvas, the 15 this step adds in red.

    Repeat across the area: a wide column from the bottom up, then a narrow column from the top down. Each pair of columns takes three canvas threads.

  6. Square off the wide columns

    Corduroy stitch, step 6: 42 stitches on the canvas, the four this step adds in red.

    Fill the bare triangle at the top left and bottom right of every wide column with one short stitch over one intersection, leaning up to the right. These compensating stitches can also go in as each column is worked.

At a glance

Also called
vertical corduroy stitch
Used for
backgrounds; clothing; buildings and fences
Coverage
Full, ribbed
Direction
Slanted both ways
Stitch length
Over 1 or 2 intersections

Corduroy is a background stitch first: its quiet, regular texture does not compete with a saying or with fancier stitches. Use one color throughout, or two to make the stripes bolder.

In a design the stripes also stand for corduroy or any striped cloth on clothing, for striped wallpaper, and for fences and the walls and floors of buildings, where they pass for wood grain.

Compensating is easy. At a side edge or a shaped outline, shorten the wide stitches to fit, keeping their slant. Close around the letters of a saying, where fitting the pattern gets awkward, fill in with ordinary tent stitch.

Tips

  • In a shaped area, start in a wide, open part and work outward to both sides, so the pattern is set before any stitch is shortened. A wide column added on the left ends each stitch where a tent stitch of the narrow column beside it ends.

When it goes wrong

The stripes look uneven, or a wide stitch misses the next narrow column.
The count has slipped. Every full wide stitch begins where a tent stitch on its left begins and ends where a tent stitch on its right ends. Take the column out as far as the last stitch that does, then count two up and two across.

Variations

  • Horizontal corduroy. The same two stitches worked in rows, so the stripes run across the canvas: a row of tent stitches from left to right, then a row of the longer stitches back from right to left.
  • Corduroy over three. The wide stitches cross three intersections, so each pair of columns takes four canvas threads: a wider stripe for a larger piece. Each bare corner then takes two short stitches, one over one intersection and one over two.
  • Mirror image. Every stitch leans the other way: the narrow columns are ordinary tent stitch, leaning up to the right, and the wide stitches lean up to the left.

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