Just to prove that I've been stitching, I have another post in quick succession for you! This time it's about my first petal turnover, which is the part of the petal that's supposed to be slightly flipped up — to make the flower look more three dimensional.
The first step was to outline the turnover in a pair of #4 silver threads using round-and-round couching. I started going down the left side, couching at 2.5mm intervals:
When navigating the point at the end, I tried to get a really sharp corner, and I think I did quite well:
Navigating all the little sharp turns was tricky, but I took my time, using the proper techniques for turning a corner (described in my phase 2 post on round-and-round couching), and I think the next one was pretty successful too:
When I got back to my starting point, I had to do another very sharp turn to begin the second row of couching:
I turned a little below where I had sunk my ends (at staggered points) to try and emphasize the point, and I think it turned out reasonably well.
Then I completed my second row of couched silver to finish the turnover outline:
At this point, I added in a pair of #5 perle cotton spacers on the top of the turnover to create a defined space between the turnover and the petal. I also added a pair of #3 perle cotton spacers to the left of the turnover to create a slightly larger defined space between each petal:
Full disclosure: I put all my spacers in at the beginning, right after completing the central petals, because I got confused by the instructions. I learned later that you can't put these spacers in first because if they cover the lines of the pattern, the lines will show when the spacers are later removed. So I had to take them out, stitch my turnover outline, and then replace them like this. I left the others in for now — you can see the spacers still in for the petal to the right — but I will have to remove those later and put them back in at the appropriate time. Oh well. Live and learn. It just means I did extra work.
Next, I had to fill the turnover with a checkerboard pattern. This part was super involved and included a lot of steps. To create an even checkerboard pattern, I first had to stitch guidelines vertically inside the turnover using white couching silk, placing the stitches exactly 3mm apart:
The lines look uneven, but that turned out to be an optical illusion caused by the shape of the pattern. I lined them up with my measuring template about 100 times while doing them just to be sure they'd be even and then had a mild panic attack when I saw them like this. 😂 But you can see here that they are even with the template:
Then I had to take 12 strands of cotton padding, tightly twisted, and couch down a little padded roll very snugly between the guidelines, slightly tapering each end:
This process took absolutely forever and is one reason that I really hated doing this turnover. Though it is by no means the only reason. At any rate, here are all the little padded rolls couched down:
With the padding in place, it was time to start the to-and-fro work. I tried to find the longest possible point to start my first row. To keep the threads poofed up, I used tapestry and other thick needles I had lying around to hold the threads up over the intervals where they weren't couched down:
I started with a single #4 silver thread and couched it down on the far right end, leaving a two inch tail to sink later. (The couching stitches always go exactly on the guidelines — or as exactly as you can get them; it's deceptively difficult.) Then I took the thread all the way across the turnover to the left side, keeping it perpendicular to the guidelines, and couched it down to make the turn. I did a pinhead stitch to hold the turning stitch in place, took the thread back across to the right side, and then and only then couched down the pair of threads at every other guideline. Just as a note, I had to leave the thread slightly lax on the way across the first time to allow enough room to couch it down several times in between.
This part was actually much trickier than it looks, and I had to redo it like three times on my first row. I stripped the metal the first two times. Sigh. I really did not enjoy this part, and it's the second reason I kind of hated doing this turnover. But doing the pinhead stitch after the turn helped and so did leaving the thread slightly loose on the way to the turn. Then I just had to repeat the process several times moving upwards:
Once I got this row to a thickness of 6mm, I stopped:
Since the couching stitches were 6mm apart (every other 3mm guideline), stopping at 6mm vertically created 6mm squares. I removed the needles at this point:
To form the checkerboard pattern, I then did the next section above this row the same way but staggered the couched rows by one guideline:
Because of the shape of the turnover, it was hard to get the 6mm measured precisely and evenly all the way across, but I did my best. Once I finished this row and moved on to the top left section where it narrows, I really couldn't do anything but just fill it in as the shape allowed:
Ehhh, it's okay but not great. Mary Alice, my tutor, said this is just what you have to do because of how the turnover is shaped. It is what it is, I guess. The final step was to go back and complete the bottom row, again staggering the couched sections by one guideline:
I have to be honest, I don't love it. I don't really like the way it looks, and I really didn't much enjoy stitching it. Maybe I'll be more skilled on the next turnover and it will look better, but it just looks janky to me. If I knew how to fix it, I'd probably painstakingly take it out and start over, but I'm really not sure I can do any better than this. And it's So. Much. Work. that I don't think I can bear to to do it again if it's not going to look materially improved.
You can see from the photo that I've already done the outline, guidelines, and padded rolls for the turnover to the left. So I will probably try the checkerboard pattern on that turnover first. If it looks much better than this first one, then I may come back and redo this one at some point. But for now, I'm calling it done, even though my satisfaction with it is not high. I just have to keep reminding myself that even Mary Alice's first few phases have issues and imperfections (she's shown them to me), so this is just part of the learning process. Time = Skill.
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