Do you ever reach a point in a hand embroidery project where you stop and say, “Ok, wait. Do I go any farther on this thing, or do I stop now and start all over?” That’s about where I am with the Floral Glove Needlecase. Last time we talked about this particular embroidery project, I had made a decision that, in spite of the faulty transfer of the embroidery design, I was going to plug on ahead. And now I’m debating all over again.
The circled areas in the photo above are the two points that are Really Irritating me.
You can see that the green part of the flower on the left is crazy-off. I stitched absolutely over the lines on the design, and I regret that – you’ll see below that the shape didn’t improve much with the satin stitched filling. The flower in the center is not as bad – but it still bothers me. The lack of symmetry and the fact that the center section stretches out to the left bug me. Will this improve when I outline the layers of the flower in gold twist? I don’t know. But in the meantime, I find myself bugged.
The transfer on this design (the fabric for the project came with the transfer traced on it – I didn’t do it myself) was a bit on the wonky side, and not just in one spot. In my opinion, the piece was sloppily transferred. Noting the comments on my last article on the progress on this piece, I wasn’t the only one struggling with the question of whether I should re-draw the design on a different piece of linen. I chose not to. My mistake – I should have started over at the very beginning!
And this is an interesting lesson for me, but it’s not a new lesson. I’ve faced it before! I have started embroidery projects before, knowing something was Not Quite Right, and plowed ahead anyway because I was eager to get going on the thing. Sometimes, I’ve regretted it. Sometimes, I haven’t. It depends on the piece. With this particular piece, you see me wallowing in regret. Wallowing, I tell you!
I have come to the conclusion that, in life, the ratio of wallowing-to-cost-of-thing-wallowed-over remains constant. As the cost of the thing increases, wallowing increases proportionately.
And so I kick myself for a bad decision from the beginning. The lesson: if you have invested heavily in a particular needlework project, make sure you are satisfied from the very beginning, so that you don’t have to wallow in regret later on!
I should have started over. But I didn’t. And so this is where I am:
I do not like the shape of the green at the base of the flower. Maybe this will improve when the green is covered with silk purl, which is supposed to be couched horizontally over it.
The green on the left flower is much better – the shape is more consistent.
So, the decision I am facing right now:
1. Do I start over? I probably have enough thread to start the whole thing over, though I’m not quite certain. But ugh. I really can’t stand the thought of going through the set-up process all over again, and this time having to transfer the design. The design that came in the kit – the line drawing of the piece – is a good bit larger than the actual design on the fabric, so I’d also have to fiddle with the design to get it to the right size. I’m not overly fond of this part of the process.
2. Do I just plow ahead and assume that it will all turn out ok enough, and chalk it up to a learning experience?
3. Do I try a third route – correct the green thing on the right side (pick it out, alter the lines, and re-stitch it), adjust the middle flower when I do the outlining in gold, and take care of any off kilter transfer problems on the rest of the design as I come to them?
I’m inclined towards #3. What do YOU think? Any advice to offer? Have you ever been in a similar situation? What did you do? Were you happy with your decision? Leave a comment and help me out here! Troubleshooting is always easier when there are more heads than one involved!
