Needlepoint Stitch Guide For Royal Nutcracker
STITCHES USED ON THIS MODEL:
All the threads are used as a single strand, just as they come. Do not join or separate them.
Red Hat—Mosaic:
Purple Pants—Upright Cross:
This is a closely packed stitch and is best stitched in diagonal rows, like the diagram (you can start at the top of the row if you prefer)
Purple Sleeve—Gobelin stitch:
Parallel stitches of varying length to fit the space. Start in the outer upper corners with up one and over one, then up two and over two, and so on until the width is covered. Reduce the stitches again at the bottom. We reversed the stitch for the opposite sleeve.
Leaf Stems—Wrapped Back stitch:
You can stitch this straight onto the canvas, or stitch it last as surface embroidery over the underlying Tent stitches. We did this as surface embroidery.
Hair—French knots:
These are best learnt through video tutorial. We came up and down in the same hole for a tighter curl.
Beard—Random Encroaching Gobelin:
Stitches of varying length that partially intersect with the stitches above to create an overlapping effect. This is a free-style stitch. The diagram shows slanting stitches up and to the right. The beard can have them going in either direction (random).
Berries—Smyrna Cross:
The diagram shows several stitches in a row, for each berry we used only one stitch.
Coat Gold Braid Fasteners—Long stitch:
Use a single strand of the gold metallic and one long straight stitch.
All the other stitches are regular needlepoint Tent stitch (Continental or Basketweave).
You can purchase the Royal Nutcracker kit here.
