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Straight stitches · Beginner

Hungarian stitch

Groups of three upright stitches, short, long, short, forming small diamonds with a gap between each group.

Hungarian stitch: the finished stitch on canvas, 23 stitches, all upright, in two colors
The finished stitch on canvas. Every stitch runs from one hole to another; the two colors are only there to tell the stitches 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. Work a short stitch

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

    Work an upright stitch over two threads.

  2. Work a long stitch next to it

    Hungarian stitch, step 2: two stitches on the canvas, the one this step adds in red. Numerals 3 and 4 mark its ends, in working order.

    Next to it, work one over four threads, starting one hole lower and ending one hole higher.

  3. Finish the diamond

    Hungarian stitch, step 3: three stitches on the canvas, the one this step adds in red. Numerals 5 and 6 mark its ends, in working order.

    Work another over two, level with the first. That is one diamond.

  4. Skip a hole and start the next

    Hungarian stitch, step 4: eight stitches on the canvas, the five this step adds in red.

    Skip one hole and start the next diamond.

  5. Nest the next row

    Hungarian stitch, step 5: 15 stitches on the canvas, the seven this step adds in red.

    On the following row, two threads lower, work each short stitch straight below a short stitch of the row above, sharing the hole at its lower end, and place each long stitch in the skipped space, so diamonds nest between the ones above.

At a glance

Used for
backgrounds; small diamond texture; two-color patterns
Coverage
Full, with a thread a little thicker than for tent stitch
Direction
Upright
Stitch length
Over 2 or 4 canvas threads

Hungarian stitch can be worked in one color or with a different color in each row, which brings out the small all-over diamond pattern. It works well as a background filler.

Hungarian stitch is one of the oldest canvas stitches on record. One stitch reference traces it to late medieval German church embroidery, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a seventeenth-century stitched portrait of Charles II that uses it alongside petit point.

It is a fairly small stitch, so it fits tight spaces as well as backgrounds. Turned on its side, with the stitches lying across, it is used for rivers, lakes and drifting clouds. One stitch list notes that it is often combined with other straight stitches to build larger patterns.

One teacher uses Hungarian stitch for clouds in front of a brick-stitch sky, because Hungarian is slightly larger in scale.

Tips

  • Count the skipped hole carefully on the first row; every later row depends on it.

When it goes wrong

Canvas shows between the stitches.
Upright stitches cover less well than slanted ones. Add strands or use a thicker thread, and use a laying tool when there are several strands in the needle.
The diamonds stop nesting.
Each long stitch has to drop into the gap left between two diamonds in the row above. If it has nowhere to go, a gap was missed in that row.

Variations

  • Hungarian grounding. Bands of Hungarian diamonds alternating with zigzag rows of longer upright stitches, as recorded by one stitch reference.
  • Pavilion stitch. The same idea on a bigger scale, with more steps in each diamond.

Questions

What is the difference between Hungarian and Parisian stitch?
Parisian alternates long and short stitches without a break. Hungarian works in groups of three, short, long, short, and leaves a gap before the next group.

Where to go next

Stitches

Guides