"Shell Stitch" - A Needlelace Edging

Today, a brief needlelace tutorial!  This is a simple edging stitch, meaning you can use it to decorate your hems and other edges, even if you're not hard-core into lace-making! 

The stitch is called "shell stitch" in the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, as well as in other sources.  However, several Victorian resources I've found online name it the "point de Venise", and Thérèse de Dillmont simply numbers her stitches (which is not memorable at all)!  As you may recall from my post about French Needlelaces, the nomenclature for lace is not consistent.  So "point de Venise" could mean Venetian needlelace in general as well as being a name for this particular stitch.  I'll stick with "shell stitch" for this tutorial, since the finished nubs look like wee shells. 

Here I am using black embroidery floss on white linen.  Many thanks to my sister for taking pictures over my shoulder so you can see my hands as you would see your own if you were sewing.  I am right handed, so I'm manipulating the needle with my right hand and guiding the thread with my left.  If you're left-handed, set a mirror at a 45 degree angle to your computer, and look at the mirror images. 

In the pictures below, the edging I'm sewing already has six finished shell stitches, and I'm working on the seventh. 

STEP 1
Working right to left, make an arch with your thread, stab into the fabric from front to back, and bring the needle through and up, in front of the arch.  This would be a blanket stitch if you pulled it snug, but for this edging you want to keep the arch loose. 

STEP 2
Now you have a closed arch with a half-hitch on the left side of it.  Your next goal is to do a blanket stitch right over that half-hitch, tying it together! 

So, poke your needle down through the center of your arch, come out the other side of the half-hitch, and over the loop of your working thread.  It's the same motion as in Step 1, except in Step 1 you stitched through fabric and in Step 2 you stitch through your previous stitch. 

Look at the next picture to see how to pull this stitch tight.

STEP 2, CONTINUED
Use your left hand to pinch the half-hitch so the arch from Step 1 doesn't collapse while you're tightening the next part of the stitch.  With your right hand, pull the thread away from your fabric, so the blanket stitch tightens above the edge of your fabric.  This picture shows the stitch just as it's tightened with my right hand and I've stopped pinching the half-hitch with my left hand. 

You've made a blanket stitch around the half-hitch and away from the edge of the fabric!  Now you don't have to worry about your arch collapsing or changing size; it's locked in place.  The double-thread of the half-hitch is all below the knot you just made. 

STEP 3
Make another blanket stitch around the half-hitch, tightening this one below the last one, closer to the fabric. 

Remember to sew around the half-hitch, where there are two threads.  The top of the arch only has one thread! 

STEP 4
Continue making blanket stitches around the half-hitch, until your working thread abuts the fabric edge.  This cluster of blanket stitches is the "shell"... to increase the resemblance to a real shell, make your first blanket stitch (step 2) tight, and the ones below it looser, so the "shell" increases in size. 

For this project, I did each shell with three blanket stitches. 

Practice a few times on scrap fabric to become consistent in size and tension before working on your project.