August 16, 1926—Last week, I took a class with my local EGA
chapter on a needlework technique called “Chicken Scratch.” I didn’t know
anything about it, but I was happy to jump in and find out why the stitching can
look so wonderfully lacy on gingham fabric.
That lacy look comes from covering the dark squares of the
gingham weave with full stitches in white thread (see above). The technique
uses just a small group of stitches: cross stitch, double cross (or Smyrna),
woven ovals, squares, and daisies wrapped around running stitches. These are usually
worked in white floss or perle thread. What’s fun is that, depending
on how you arrange the stitches on the fabric, the finished pieces can look
quite different, as you can see in the photo below of work by Yukika Wada.
And where did the name come from? I’m told that, on the back
of the project, the threads carried from one square to another look a bit like “chicken
scratch”—and that’s how the technique got its name.
I’ve come across photos of beautiful pillows, pincushions,
aprons, pockets, clutch purses, and all sorts of other pieces worked in Chicken
Scratch. Unfortunately, it seems to have fallen out of favor, but who knows? Maybe
someday it will make a comeback.
