Breaking the Rules

Let’s look at a diagram of a border:

Simple Border

This simple border is made up of two stitches, a slanted gobelin stitch and a horizontal gobelin stitch.  Not really hard to execute.  Everything look OK?

My stitched border:

Stitched Sample #1

I have used 1 strand of Silk & Ivory for the slanted gobelin stitches and 2 strands Watercolours for the horizontal gobelin stitches.  Other than the fact the horizontal stitches weren't laid, is it still looking OK?

I’m going to change threads and restitch the border:

Stitched Sample #2

Now I’ve stitched the slanted gobelin stitches using 2 strands Appleton wool and the horizontal gobelin stitches using 2 strands Silk & Ivory.  What do you think?  Does this look nice?

Don’t you think the top and bottom horizontal stitches, red arrows pointing to them below, flare out too much?  It almost looks like I’ve stitched too many horizontal stitches because they extend beyond the edge of the slanted gobelin stitches.

Flared Thread Problem

This problem existed in the first example at the top of this blog posting, but the Watercolour thread did not flare as much and the Silk & Ivory took up more room space at the top and the bottom of the slanted gobelin stitch.

Here is the rule I want you to break:  Follow the chart.

Many people who stitch from charts will follow the chart unless there is an error in the chart.  There is no error in this chart for some thread types, but it will produce problematic stitches with other threads.  So, look at your stitching after you follow the chart, does it look a little off?  Could you have stitched this a different way and made it look better?

In the sample below, I have made a small change to how I stitched the horizontal gobelin stitches and the resulting stitched sample looks much better.

Stitched Sample #3 - Problem Solved

Can you see how I solved the problem of the flare of the Silk & Ivory thread?

Here is what I did:

Simple Border - Redux

I’ve made a simple change to the border, and it will work with almost all thread types - perhaps a very thin sewing thread will not work, but most others will.

Here is how I stitched it:

I stitched tent stitches using 1 strand Silk & Ivory then stitched the horizontal gobelin stitches using 2 strands Silk & Ivory.

Problem solved and the results look much nicer.

A critical eye and no fear of not following the chart - that’s what everyone needs to bring to their stitching.