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I just went from mega-proud to mega discouraged.
I'm working on my first even weave project.


This would be easier if I could post the pattern, but I understand that's against the rules (for good reasons). Can I post just the part that I screwed up?

Otherwise, maybe the picture will be enough. Basically, I totally forgot to stitch the stem and leaves in his coat. I've been doing solid red, but there's supposed to be bits of green.



Currently, my plan is to unstitch what I did so far on the right only and shift everything I missed on the left over a few columns to the righ. This means some of the right-hand leaves will be flush with the edge of his coat, but I’m not a good stitcher, and trying to unstitch the left-hand side after I’ve bound it off is just asking for heartbreak. As it is, the few times I’ve had to unstitch a row or two has resulted in broken floss three times. It’s just too much for me.

However, before I do anything, I wanted check with you guys and see if there is any better or simpler thing I could do to fix this.

Put a running stitch line where the front should be Then adjust the leaves and stem if neccassary tweak a leaf off and a bit of stem no one will know

My naivety is showing... what's a running stitch?

http://www.embroiderersguild.com/stitch ... nning.html" target="_blank

OHH! so instead of making little pixelated Xs, I could just shortcut and make the stem a running stitch??

that's just crazy enough to work! I can't make it over the red, right? I'll have to make it all on the right-hand side, but it will just take up less room, right?

I mean't put the running stitch where the front of santa is so you do not go past the actual front
Or better still do the right amount of rows and stitches that occur after the last leaf
Then put the leaves and stem in in X stitch tweaking as needed

Hope that makes sense

IMHO

i like the idea of doing the entire coat in red and the green leaves on top of that.

and, everyone of us had had floss break during ing.
it's just part of the experience.

try not to be too discouraged. i know you are excited to do this.

the best advice i got from this forum is that all projects are completed one stitch at a time. ( the best advice i got from my DH is, relax, it's not rocket surgery...)

and we're gonna be here for you..

I have actually ripped stitches out on purpose if i was frustrated enough.. that way I didn't have to worry about broken floss I was breaking it on purpose LOL.

i am not suggesting this just saying.

I say just tweak the flowers a bit..too but I know that can be hard.

I have upon occasion, stitched on top of the stitches that shouldn't be there. You might try that, if you don't like to look, then you need to try something else, but it has worked for me.

heh, i actually had to just take a break from stitching altogether for a couple days. i just feel so foolish that i made such a silly mistake. I think i'm going to tackle it again this weekend with fresh eyes.

@maemae: LOL! you know what? this is actually not a bad suggestion. I might just give the whole thing to my boyfriend and be like: "tear out the floss from here to here. I can't watch."

@pattiebelle: Thank you so much for the kind words. I think I'm just taking this rough bcs I was trying so hard to be careful. i'm sure the more i stitch, the more I'll realize that this is just part of the experience. I'm going to see how it looks to do the whole coat in red and then add the leaves on top. I just stitch them like normal?
Seriously though, thanks!

Aw man.. *WHAT* ( I had to edit my spelling error ) a frustrated looking sticky note Mistakes unfortunately are par for course...
Faith

I think adding the leaves on top will look good - makes them stand out. And you can tell people, if you like, that you decided to improve the design . . .

Good thinking Wandatoo!! I think it would look fine doing just that!

The idea of stitching on top is a great one. and will make the coat look more realistic too in a way. I have stitched over stitches that were already there and honestly except for me I don't think anyone else notices. We pay a lot more attention to our work and are far more aware of mistakes than others are. And I don't know anyone who hasn't fretted over mistakes more than one time, no matter how experienced and skillful a stitcher is.

Carole

If it was me I'd done one of two things

1, stitch green over the top but maybe use a darker green possibly only using one strand

2, stitch the green bit higher up than chart says

Either would work and no one will ever now, just us and we won't tell a soul

I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. We all make mistakes and there's always a way round it.

paul wrote:
I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. We all make mistakes and there's always a way round it.

Whenever I do something like this, I'm always reminded about the early quilters (Mennonite, I think it was) who always added a mistake in their quilts, because only God is perfect. That would be my story and I'm sticking to it!

@wandatoo: that's funny. my mom always says, "only God is perfect." so maybe i should relax already!

Thank you all for the kind words. I'm going to try stitching over tonight and seeing how it looks. if it doesn't pan out, Joe has already agreed to be my so i don't have to bear it.

Sorry, but I'm a bit of a freek and I just tear the whole thing out. That being said, I'm working on Halloween Cove and I'm not sure if I left enough fabric at the bottom. (I started at the top and not the middle) Sigh..... Oh well, I'm leaving it to the gods.

From what I can see, you have barely stitched into the green leaf area. You just have about half of 2 leaves, and most of 1 leaf covered by red stitching. That's fixable. Either by carefully stitching over the red, or by carefully ripping one stitch at a time in the offending places, and making sure you have ends hanging loose at the back, around the edges of the leaf space, that you can stitch over with the green thread to ensure they are kept firm at the back of the work. This is something I have done on occasion, and it works, but you DO have to be careful!

Wandatoo wrote:

paul wrote:
I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. We all make mistakes and there's always a way round it.

Whenever I do something like this, I'm always reminded about the early quilters (Mennonite, I think it was) who always added a mistake in their quilts, because only God is perfect. That would be my story and I'm sticking to it!

That's my excuse. Also most of the people that see my work, don't do it themselves, and they are not looking at the pattern to notice the difference, so they think I'm wonderful.