Technique · Construction
Pick stitching
The small visible stitches along a lapel edge: sometimes a hand finish, more often a machine imitating one.
Pick stitching is a line of small stitches running a few millimetres inside the edge of a lapel, pocket or front. Done by hand it holds the layers together and firms the edge; done by an AMF machine it is decoration. Both are common, and telling them apart is one of the more useful things to learn.
What it is for
Structurally, it secures the layers along an edge so it stays crisp. Visually, it draws a fine line that defines the lapel. On a hand-stitched edge the stitches are slightly irregular in length and spacing, and the thread disappears into the cloth between them.
A machine (the AMF or Cornely type built for this purpose) produces a very even line, often slightly raised, with each stitch identical. It exists purely because customers came to read the stitch as a mark of handwork.
Reading it
Look for variation. Hand stitching is regular but not identical: the length wanders by a fraction, the distance from the edge breathes. Machine stitching is perfect, which is the tell. It is worth being clear that this is a small thing. A jacket can be entirely hand-padded and machine pick-stitched, or fused and hand-stitched at the edge. The stitch is evidence about the stitch, not about the coat.
Where it belongs
Conventionally on the lapel and front edge, the pocket flaps and the breast pocket, roughly six millimetres from the edge. Some houses stitch further in, some closer, and a few omit it on formal garments entirely, an evening coat is traditionally left plain.
As a signal of quality it is nearly worthless on its own, and it is worth saying so directly: a machine can produce it in seconds and does, on garments where nothing else is done by hand.
At a glance
Who works with it
Houses and mills on this site with a documented connection to Pick stitching.
01
Technique The hand-worked buttonhole
Twenty minutes of silk and gimp for a hole that a machine can cut in fifteen seconds.
02
Garment The suit
A suit is simply a jacket and trousers, sometimes with a waistcoat, made from the same cloth at once so they match exactly.
03
Technique Full canvas construction
A hand-shaped skeleton of horsehair and wool, sewn (never glued) between cloth and lining.
Picture credits 4
- Pick stitches along a lapel edge: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- A hand-worked silk buttonhole: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- A navy suit on a valet stand: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art
- A jacket front showing its full canvas: Original art · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale · Il Sartoriale original art