Step 4 --- Filling leaves with satin stitch

Hi everyone,

I am back after a long gap. Let us continue with the autumn rose project.

The stitches to be used in this project are: satin stitch, long and short stitch, and stem stitch.

Now let us see how to fill a leaf with satin stitch. Satin stitch is a lovely stitch which gives a smooth, shiny, and glossy effect to a design. I am going to use Anchor thread no. 309 for this. You can find out the equivalent DMC threads through the conversion charts available on the following web sites.

http://yarntree.com/019dmccn.htm
http://www.findstitch.com/resources/conversion.cgi/from,anchor/to,dmc
http://www.jenny-wren-crafts.co.uk/dmc_to_anchor_conversion_chart.htm

When the pattern is ready with the guidelines, thread your needle with a single strand of thread. Mary Corbet discusses in her web site Needlenthread.com about using a single strand for satin stitch. She says that although this is time consuming, the end result will be perfect. Previously I was using two strands, now I have switched over to single strand.

Let's learn the satin stitch. You can start out to stitch from the lower corner or upper corner and progress toward the other end. However, lower to upper always looks better for me. Our stitches are going to start from the inner edge of the leaf and proceed toward the outer edge. Bring out the needle from down the cloth through a point at the lower corner of the inner edge.



Carefully follow the drawn guideline and insert your needle down into a point on the curvy outline of the leaf. Make sure your first stitch is short and the next stitch is bigger than that, and so on. However, as you proceed through the center of the leaf, the stitches will be more or less of the same size according to the design's outline. When you satin stitch a pattern the stitches should not deviate from the outline. If the stitches are out of place it will give a gawky look to your work. To get a smooth edge you can stitch the outline with split stitch or stem stitch or chain stitch. However, out of practice you will get smooth edges without using the abovementioned stitches as the base.






Now your first satin stitch is over.



Let's continue with our second satin stitch. Bring out the needle from a point on the inner edge of the leaf that is very next to the previous point from which we brought out the needle to make the first stitch.



Sew a stitch that is slightly bigger than the previous stitch. Ensure that you leave no gap between the two stitches.



Your second stitch is done now.



Similarly complete your third stitch.








Follow the same process throughout the design.



The backside of the satin stitch should be same like the frontside stitches.

Hope you enjoyed this satin stitch tutorial.