Fishbone Stitch - ideal for embroidered leaves

Fishbone stitch fills a leaf shape with smooth coverage and a plaited spine down the centre, which is what makes stitched foliage look alive rather than flat.

It comes in two forms. Flat fishbone lies smooth against the fabric. Raised fishbone stands padded and proud, with real dimension. This page teaches you both, step by step, with my stitched samples and diagrams to work from, and a troubleshooting section further down for when your leaf refuses to behave.

It is my go-to stitch for leaves, vines and other directional elements, because you can change the stitch direction as you work, and the result looks wonderfully natural. Let's get started.

Raised fishbone leaves in a floral design

Although I used embroidery floss for my samples, you could choose to stitch with crewel wool if you want a matt effect.

How to work flat fishbone stitch

To get started, thread your needle with a fairly long length of thread, as this stitch can use more than you first expect.

Follow the numbered points on the diagram below as you work through these four moves:

The working order, shown as open fishbone: the stitches are spaced so the plaited spine shows. Worked snugly together, the same moves give you flat fishbone. Click it to open full size.

Continue to follow the outside shape, working stitches on alternate sides until you have filled the shape. You can either place the stitches close to each other or spaced out a little, for different effects.

Try to keep the stitches that go down in the center lined up as best you can. This results in a nice smooth vein line.

If you leave a small gap between your stitches, you will achieve an open fishbone leaf, as in this photo, with a plaited effect down the center.

You can also see an example of this on my filling stitches page.

An open fishbone leaf

What's the difference between the two versions?

So what is the difference between the two forms of fishbone stitch?

• ✓ For the basic version take each stitch through the fabric close to the center of the leaf.
• ✓ When working raised fishbone you take the stitch across the entire width of the shape each time, forming a double layer of stitches which creates a more padded effect.

Raised fishbone stitch instructions

You can see the depth this gives in the photo, as the leaf is causing a shadow on the fabric. A flatter leaf would not do this.

The diagram below shows the first three pairs of stitches with every point numbered, so you can see how each pair sits just outside the last and the crossings build.

Raised fishbone stitch

Start with a vertical stitch, which is around 1/3rd to 1/2 the length of the leaf.

Then bring the needle out to the right of point 2, at point 3, on the outside edge of your shape.

Take the needle back to the top and down through the fabric right next to point 1, and up at 5. This forms a short horizontal stitch on the back of the work.

Take the needle back down at 6, on the same invisible line as point 3.

This time, taking a slightly sloping horizontal stitch on the back between points 6 and 7, bring the needle back to the front of the work.

Take the thread across the worked area and insert the needle at point 8 on the outside edge.

Bring it back up at point 9, again forming a horizontal stitch on the back. Continue in this manner, forming diagonal stitches on the front and horizontal stitches on the back to fill the area.

Raised fishbone stitch: each pair sits outside the last and the crossings step down the leaf. Click it to open full size.

You could use both variations of this stitch in the same design, to create more interest in the leaves. I do hope you will give one or both variations a try.

When Your Fishbone Stitch Doesn't Look Right

Most fishbone problems come down to the same handful of things, and not one of them means starting again. Before you unpick anything, read this section with your work in front of you. You will probably find your leaf on this page, and the fix is usually smaller than you think.

First, one quick check. This page teaches both flat and raised fishbone, and they are meant to look different. Flat fishbone lies smooth with a subtle plaited spine. Raised fishbone stands padded and proud of the fabric. And if you have left small, even gaps between your stitches, you are looking at open fishbone, which shows its plaited spine and a little fabric on purpose. If your leaf looks puffier, flatter or more open than the photo you are following, check which version you are working before you change anything else. You may be stitching a perfectly good leaf, only not the one shown in your pattern instructions.

A gap is opening up down the middle

A gap down the centre means your stitches are not crossing. It is the most common fishbone problem there is, and it has one cause. Each stitch starts on the outside edge of the shape and needs to finish a few threads past the centre line, on the opposite side of it, so that every stitch overlaps the one before. If your stitches are ending exactly on the centre line, or stopping short of it, you are working two neat halves of satin stitch with a valley between them, and no amount of pulling will close it.

The fix for the stitches still to come: cross the line, every stitch, even though it feels like you are stitching into the wrong half. The overlap is what builds the spine. The stitches already worked can stay; once the crossed stitches begin, the eye follows the spine and the early rows read as part of the leaf.

One leaf, both behaviours: at the top the stitches sit on the line and the gap shows. Near the base they begin to cross, and the spine appears.

The edges look uneven or jagged

Ragged edges come from the outside of the stitch, not the middle. Two things cause them. Either the stitch points along the outline are spaced too far apart, so the edge breaks up into steps, or the stitch angle has drifted as you worked down the leaf, so the stitches fan out of line with each other.

For spacing: the points on the outline should sit close enough to touch. For angle: match each stitch to the one before it, not to the leaf as a whole. The most reliable check costs nothing: lay the working thread across the leaf where the stitch will go, look at the angle against the previous stitch, and only then take the needle down. If your angles still wander (everyone's do at first), draw two pencil lines across the leaf on the diagonal as a reference. Your hands settle into the angle faster than you expect.

Drifting angles and stepped edges

Points close together, angles matched

Lay the thread in place first, check the angle, then commit the needle.

The stitches bunch up at the tip of the leaf

The bottom of the leaf never overlaps as neatly as the middle did. That is not you. The shape narrows faster than the stitches can cross, so the last two or three stitches sit at a steeper angle and stop meeting tidily at the centre. Every fishbone leaf does this, including the ones in the tutorial photos, where the finishing stitches are simply hidden.

Finish the shape, then look for any small unfilled slivers along the sides near the point. Fill them with two or three tiny straight stitches laid in the same direction as their neighbours. Nobody will ever find them, including you, next week.

The last two stitches at the point do not overlap, and that is exactly right.

The leaf is bulkier than you wanted

A bulky leaf has two usual causes, and both are choices rather than mistakes. Deep crossings are one: if each stitch travels a long way past the centre line, thread piles up along the spine. Keep the crossings shallow, a thread or two past the line is enough, and the bottom layer gets covered anyway. Thread weight is the other: six strands in a small leaf will sit up off the fabric like a little cushion no matter how well you stitch. Try three strands, or even two, and let the fabric show you the difference on a spare corner.

And if you like the padded look, raised fishbone does it on purpose, beautifully. Bulk is only a problem if you did not choose it.

Six strands: the leaf sits up like a cushion

Two strands: the same stitch lies flat

The leaf in your design is not the leaf in the diagram

The diagram leaf is an obliging medium oval. The leaves in real designs rarely are, and the stitch adjusts to fit.

• ✓ Narrow leaves need fewer, steeper stitches, and very shallow crossings, or the spine takes over the whole leaf. Two strands rather than three helps here too.
• ✓ Wide leaves push the stitches long, and long stitches snag. Raised fishbone copes better, because its double layer supports the width. For a really broad shape, a different filling may serve you better; the leaf stitches page below compares the options.
• ✓ Curved leaves work when the centre line curves with them. Draw the curved vein first, angle each stitch against the section of line it crosses, and expect to fit an extra stitch or two on the outside of the curve.

An honest look at the back: slack loops waiting to snag. The front looked fine.

Can you spot the extra stitch?

This leaf is stitched in a fine overdyed cotton, a quietly useful practice thread: the colour changes make each stitch show separately, so your spacing has nowhere to hide.

It went well until too much space opened up between two stitches on the right-hand side. The rescue was not unpicking. One extra stitch, slipped into the gap and angled to match its neighbours, closed it. Look closely: can you find it? And while you are looking, where else would this leaf take one more stitch?

That is the whole rescue skill in miniature: see the gap, match the angle, add the stitch. Nothing was unpicked.

An almost perfect leaf with one invisible mend. Overdyed thread shows every stitch, which makes it an excellent honesty check.

When you think you have spotted it, check yourself against the before photo

When it feels wrong at the very start

Most fishbone leaves go wrong in the first two stitches, not the last twenty. If you are three stitches in and sure you have misread the diagram, it is almost certainly one of these.

• ✓ The first stitch looks like a lonely straight stitch. It is. That short stitch down from the tip is the anchor that sets the angle for the whole leaf. It is supposed to sit there on its own.
• ✓ The second stitch feels like it is on the wrong side. Starting at the edge and finishing just past the centre line on the opposite side feels lopsided in the hand. That lopsidedness is the stitch working. It is what plaits the spine.
• ✓ Nothing looks like a leaf yet. Fishbone does not look like anything until five or six stitches are in. Work to stitch six before you judge it.

A few stitches in, and it does not look like much yet. That is normal. Keep going: by stitch six the spine plaits and the leaf appears.

You're allowed to stop, look closely, and fix the next stitch without deciding the whole leaf has failed.

More stitches for leaves

Fishbone is one of several stitches that turn thread into foliage. These pages show you the others, so you can pick the right leaf for every design.

Show Me Your Practice Leaves

The practice sheet gives you three leaves, and the invitation below is where they belong afterwards. Whether yours came out crisp, wonky or somewhere in between, the next stitcher learning this stitch would love to see them, and so would I.