"Chenille" is a specialized loop or chain embroidery that uses yarn instead of typical threads.
Chenille embroidery can be made in two forms: loop and chain. Loop embroidery is often called "terry embroidery" because it resembles terry cloth. Both types of chenille embroidery can be used together in one design and combined with other embroidery techniques.
In this article,
Types of Chenille Embroidery Stitches
Chenille embroidery has two main stitch types: Chain Stitch and Moss Stitch.
Moss is typically used for filling shapes, while Chain is used for borders and details and can also be used for flatter fills
Chenille Moss Stitch
Chenille moss produces the raised stitches commonly associated with chenille embroidery, which work best with simple shapes and can only be applied to square and coil fill patterns.
Moss can be stitched at different needle heights, with lower heights for outlining and higher for filling.
Chenille Chain Stitch
Chenille Chain produces decorative stitching that resembles chain links. It's ideal for outlining and bordering designs, monograms, and delicate detailing or fills.
Types of Chenille Fill Stitches
Chenille embroidery often combines two primary fill patterns - Square and Coil (single or double). These stitch patterns, along with Moss, are typically used for chenille fills.
For borders, a Chain stitch is usually paired with a Run stitch.
On the other hand, Compound Chenille is mostly used with Complex Fill to digitize narrow shapes with built-in chain orders for objects in chenille embroidery
What Are the Basic Considerations for Digitizing Chenille Embroidery Design
Digitizing for chenille is similar to standard embroidery but easier than regular embroidery because of simpler shapes and filling techniques.
Here are some basic considerations for digitizing chenille embroidery designs.
Chenille designs always look best when embroidered in larger sizes due to the thickness of the yarn & the sizes of moss and chain stitching. However, you can combine chenille with standard embroidery techniques for additional details.
It is essential to plan the design to minimize unnecessary jumps, similar to regular embroidery.
Chenille embroidery designs are unsuitable for small placement and sizes due to the yarn's thickness, which can lead to breakage or fabric holes. Shapes with sharp angles should also be avoided.
Chenille embroidery primarily "pushes" or expands, in contrast to traditional embroidery's "pull-push" factor.
For larger chenille embroidery designs, a cutaway backing is necessary to compensate for this.
After the basics, let’s see how the chenille embroidery digitizing and chenille lettering works.
Chenille Lettering
Chenille lettering and fonts can be digitized as regular fonts, but the letter’s joining method must employ the ‘As Digitized AD’ method. Both coil and double square filling methods can be used for standard fonts.
By their nature, chenille fonts are generally digitized for relatively large sizes due to thick yarn and relative size of stitching, somehow anywhere between 2” (50 mm) to 6” (150mm), but chenille lettering isn’t suitable for left chest pockets.
How to Digitize Chenille Embroidery Design
First select a machine format that suits your needs.
Then, choose a closed shape input tool like Complex Fill and combine it with other graphic tools such as Closed Shape, Rectangle, Ellipse, and Basic Shapes if desired.
Select a fill pattern that works with Compound Chenille objects and choose a yarn color from the palette.
Digitize the boundary of the object by using corner points or curve points.
Mark the entry and exit points on the boundary and define the stitch angle by digitizing two points.
Once all settings are complete, the Compound Chenille object will be generated and can be adjusted further by opening the Object Properties > Compound Chenille tab
Wrap Up
Chenille embroidery is renowned for its plush and gentle look, which brings depth and dimension to any design. However, digitizing for chenille is similar to standard embroidery but easier than regular embroidery because of simpler shapes and filling techniques.
