Hemstitching Doodle Cloth

Still getting ready "kitting" for the Smocking Arts Guild of America National Convention that's fast approaching. I'm working on the second to last batch of class kits for the Simple Stitches class. Someone had purchased ALL of the white Irish handkerchief linen from my usual source and wouldn't be available until October. And that was over 2 months ago....sigh. So I found another source...a beautiful source...an expensive source: Ulster linen "1000". The one thousand refers to the weight and the 1000 is their lightest weight, perfect for baby clothes.

I thought I would make a little doodle cloth sampler of the hemstitching so student could choose their preferred size. I removed threads for three different rows: 4, 5 & 6 threads and marked the cloth indicating which is which. I started with just a regular hemstitch, so it looks like a row of triangles.

Then I did the other side of the row with the same hemstitch...but it looks like a ladder when done. Hence the name "Ladder Hemstitch". The second row is so much easier and faster because the bundles are ready counted.

Here's the completed Doodle Cloth with three rows of Ladder Hemstitch, one over 4 withdrawn threads, one over 5 and the largest row over 6 withdrawn threads.

 I think everyone will especially enjoy this class working on this lucious linen!