Hungarian Braided Chain Stitch

The Hungarian Braided Chain Stitch is a decorative stitch that forms a textured, braided look for outlines and borders. It starts with closely worked chain stitches; each new stitch passes through the previous loop and picks up a bit of fabric or prior stitches to interlace the braid. Keep even tension; adjust spacing for tighter or looser braids.

My “Kitty & Flowers” Embroidery motif uses this Hungarian Braided Chain Stitch.

To make this chains, you put your needle through the previous stitch to make a circle (loop) and continuing to doing so makes braided chains. However if the previous stitch is tightly closed, picking it up is difficult. Hence, you wait to close the each circle (the previous stitch is easy to grab at this point) until you pick up the previous stitch.

Please see the illustrations below.