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Shadow Embroidery

Shadow embroidery encompasses a variety of techniques and stitches. All involve the placing of fabric or threads upon the back side of a main sheer fabric, creating a "shadow" effect when viewed from the right side. This can be done color-on-color (i.e., white on white), or by introducing color schemes just as in surface embroidery. For shadow work with threads, there are three methods: Reverse herringbone, Indian stitch, and shadow darning. Shadow darning is lesser known, and involves darning threads across the stitches on the back of the work to apply greater coverage or a denser hue. Any embroidery thread can be used, such as silk, cotton floss or floche. The amount of coverage obtained being dependent upon thread diameter and the number of stitches per design element (the tinier the stitches, the greater the coverage). Floche is trickier to handle, but creates a nice padded effect. Since very sheer fabric is required (lawn, batiste, cambric, organdy), every thread shows through the surface. Care must be taken in planning a design. Normally, threads are begun or finished at the edges of a design element, so as not to distract from the overall workmanship.	Two things are very important when executing shadow embroidery. First, you must always use the holes from the previous stitches. There should be no gaps between stitches on the surface. Second, a hoop or frame is mandatory to maintain proper stitch tension. Some stitchers prefer a tapestry needle (size 26 or 24). A crewel/embroidery size 8 or 10 works equally as well. Care must be taken not to pierce the threads of the fabric. An alternative to the graphic showing reverse herring bone (below) is to work on the reverse side of the fabric with ordinary herringbone stitch (which starts at the left side of the design). A few stitchers prefer this method. If you have trouble executing shadow embroidery as outlined here, you may wish to try that method. If you are unfamiliar with herringbone stitch, please refer to a basic embroidery dictionary to help you grasp the following more quickly.
	The basic reverse herringbone stitch. Beginning from the right side of the design, bring thread up at arrow, down at A. Up at 2, down at B, etc. Running stitches appear on the surface. The dotted lines indicate the threads as they cross on the back side of the material.
	This graphic shows how you would work an area, such as a leaf, with a line through the middle. The arrows show the steps to complete the first half.
	Partial completion of the leaf design. Notice how the threads in the second half use the SAME HOLES down the center line as the top embroidery stitches. Always finish the top half before embarking on the lower portion (second step).
	Circles, squares and similar elements present special planning. Begin by back stitching at the right side. You may need to use more or less back stitches dependent upon the element being stitched.
	After the initial back stitching, reverse herring bone is applied as shown. You may or may not have to back stitch when you reach the left edge of the element.
	In the half circle illustrated, it takes 11 stitches of equal length to cover the same ground as the bottom line (8 equal stitches). In these situations, it is not possible to keep the stitches of equal length. The embroiderer must make the stitches slightly longer in the arched line to compensate.
	Tulip. A work in progress adorning a ladies handkerchief. Notice the tiny, evenly spaced shadow embroidered rows within the central petal. The stitches were counted on this example, to be an even 10 along the row's length. These rows are divided by feather stitch.