Featherstitch orfeather stitch andCretan stitch orfaggoting stitch areembroidery techniques made of open, loopedstitches worked alternately to the right and left of a central rib.^[1] Fly stitch is categorized with the featherstitches.

Feather stitch is a decorative stitch which is usually accompanied with embellishments.^[2] Cretan stitch is characteristic of embroidery ofCrete and the surrounding regions.^[3]

Open Cretan stitch or faggoting is used in making open decorative seams and to attach insertions.

Feather stitch embroidery arose inEngland in the 19th century for decoratingsmock-frocks. It is also used to decorate the joins incrazy quilting. It is related to (and probably derives from) the olderbuttonhole stitch andchain stitch.^[1]

Common variants of featherstitch include:^[4][1]

• Basic featherstitch
• Long-armed featherstitch
• Double featherstitch
• Closed featherstitch
• Chained feather stitch
• Cloud stitch

• 
  Featherstitch
• 
  Closed featherstitch as acouching stitch, left, and long-armed featherstitch, right
• 
  Double featherstitch
• 
  Chained featherstitch

Other looped stitches include:^[4][1]

• Cretan stitch^[5] orOpen Cretan stitch orfaggoting stitch
• Closed Cretan stitch
• Fishbone stitch
• Fly stitch,^[6] a filling stitch made of single, detached tacked loops.
• Loop stitch
• Scroll stitch

• 
  Cretan stitch
• 
  Closed Cretan stitch
• 
  Closed Cretan stitch
• 
  Faggotting with twisted Cretan stitch
• 
  Fly stitch
• 
  Loop stitch
• 
  Scroll stitch

• Cross-stitch
• Embroidery stitch

Wikimedia Commons has media related tofeather stitches.

• Caulfield, S.F.A., and B.C. Saward,The Dictionary of Needlework, 1885.
• Christie, Mrs. Archibald (Grace Christie),Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving, London, John Hogg, 1912, online atProject Gutenberg
• Enthoven, Jacqueline:The Creative Stitches of Embroidery, Van Norstrand Rheinhold, 1964,ISBN 0-442-22318-8
• Reader's Digest,Complete Guide to Needlework. The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (March 1992).ISBN 0-89577-059-8

• Embroidery stitches

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• Commons category link from Wikidata