Couching and Laid Work

In embroidery, couching and laid work are techniques in which yarn or other materials are laid across the surface of the ground fabric and fastened in place with small stitches of the same or a different yarn.

The couching threads may be either the same color as the laid threads or a contrasting color. When couching threads contrast with laid threads, patterns may be worked in the couching stitches.

Applications

Laid work is one of two techniques used in the Bayeux tapestry, an embroidered cloth probably dating to the later 1070s. (The other stitch is stem stitch.)

Underside couching of metal thread was characteristic of earlier Opus Anglicanum in Medieval England and was also used historically in Sicily and rarely in other parts of Italy and France. Couching is also characteristic of Japanese metal-thread embroidery and Central Asian suzani work.

Variants

• In couching, one or more threads are laid on the fabric surface and sewn to the fabric at regular intervals.

• In couched filling, threads are laid on the surface in a trellis pattern and sewn to the fabric at the intersections.

• In laid work or Bayeux stitch, threads are laid side-by-side to fill a shape, then held in place with a thread at right angles to the laid threads. This crossing thread is then couched to the fabric to hold the laid threads in place.

• In Bokhara couching or Bokhara stitch, the couched threads are held in place with many tiny crossing stitches, which may be aligned from row to row to produce patterns.

• In Roumanian stitch, long satin stitches are each held in place with a small diagonal stitch made in the center

• In Roumanian couching, bundles of laid threads are held in place with Roumanian stitches

• In Underside couching, a heavy couching thread (historically, a stout linen) is brought up from the wrong side of the work, looped over the laid thread, and returned to the wrong side. The couching thread is then given a sharp pull which draws a small loop of laid thread through to the wrong side of the fabric. Underside couching has the advantages that the couching thread is completely concealed from the front and is not subject to wear.

The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/couching_(embroidery)).  7/4/09 Modified by Apparel Search.

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Why Precious Threads Are Laid, Not Stitched

Couching exists because some threads should not go through the fabric. Gold and other metal threads are stiff, expensive and easily damaged by repeated passage through a ground; laying them on the surface and tying them down wastes nothing on the back, keeps the metal unbent, and lets a broad area be covered by parallel laid threads at speed. The same logic serves thick cords, braids and multiple yarns that no needle eye could carry. The couching stitch is therefore structural first and decorative second — until the stitcher chooses a contrasting couching thread, at which point the tie-downs become a pattern layer of their own, worked as trellis, chequer or Bokhara couching's rows of tiny crossing stitches.

Two Ways of Tying Down

Surface couching and underside couching solve the same problem from opposite sides. In surface couching the tying thread sits visibly on the front, so its color, spacing and alignment are part of the design and its regularity is the measure of the work. In underside couching the tying thread never shows: the loop pulled through to the back does the holding, the front shows uninterrupted metal, and the couching thread escapes the abrasion that would eventually cut a surface thread on a vestment in regular use. Roumanian couching takes a third approach, holding bundles of laid threads with long satin stitches each pinned by a small diagonal stitch in its center — a stitch that is itself a form of couching, scaled up until the tie becomes the texture.

Spacing Is the Design Decision

In couching, the interval between tie-down stitches is a deliberate choice. Stitches set close together hold a laid thread rigidly and give a smooth, enamelled surface fit for metal thread that must not shift; wider spacing lets a soft yarn undulate slightly and reads as texture. Patterned couching exploits the interval itself, aligning or staggering the ties from row to row to build trellis, brick and chequer effects across a filled area. The Bayeux workers understood this economy: long laid threads covered the big shapes of horses and ships quickly, and a sparse grid of couching held the whole surface with a fraction of the stitches solid satin work would have needed.