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I've been looking at some easily found stitch diagrams of the outline, or stem stitch. There's no small amount of confusion over the difference between these two stitches, but I believe that they can be identified as essentially the same stitch. If you read Marion Scoular's "Advice" book, you'll understand why the two stitches are confused and learn how to decide which one you want to use.
But, the most interesting thing I've noted in the stitch reference books is that no matter what it is called, outline or stem, it often isn't drawn correctly. The diagrams do not show the line of travel and they should. Wenches need to know where to place the needle in relation to the line. If we are doing either stem or outline, we should be coming up and going down ON THE LINE!!!! Many times, the diagrams show the needle piercing the ground 'above' the line and coming up 'below' the line. This is not correct, and will result in a diagonal satin stitch, not a true stem stitch or outline stitch. In addition, Wenches should be sharing holes when doing outline or stem. A place where the needle pierces the ground should be used twice, once for fiber diving to the back and once for fiber coming up to the front. Hole sharing on the line of travel is the difference between a steep diagonal satin stitch and the outline or stem stitch.
I suppose that this error got started when an artist, assigned to create drawings for some embroidery text, chose to create an incorrect drawing, with the diagonal satin version because it is easier to draw and the resulting diagram is easy to read. Wenches know that it is easier to tell what a needle is supposed to be doing if there are no shared holes. But the problem has been perpetuated and now we have many stitchers who are following printed directions, and not quite getting what they expect. This imprecise diagram shows up in magazines, in reference books and in kit directions. It may be commonly used, but it is not correct if you are being nit-picky. You will get something that looks like what you want. It is so close that the difference to most stitchers just doesn't matter. In some situations, not knowing what the difference is will cause problems.
Early in my stitching career, I fell into this outline stitch trap. I was following one of the incorrect diagrams and not paying attention. At first, I got a result close enough to the outline stitch that I thought I was doing the right thing. Gradually, my stitch got wider and wider, the angle got more and more perpindicular to the line of travel and suddenly, I found myself working a satin stitch, not the outline stitch. The problem was exacerbated because I was working around a curve and the directions stated I should make the stitches shorter around a curve. Any Wench who loves geometry can imagine what I was doing wrong and will be giggling quietly to herself. I don't mind, I was just a kid at the time and my mommy loved the flower picture.
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