I’ve recently completed my first big project: a cheeky pillowcase for one of my friends using one of Jenny Hart’s patterns:

I felt reasonably comfortable with the split stitch from my previous projects and decided to embroider the whole pillowcase in the stem stitch instead. I’ve figured that any mistakes would be a good exercise in letting go of perfectionism. I’ve comforted myself with the knowledge that my friends praise my food regardless of how awful I think it is, so it should be no different with my handwork. 

Just that… bad food disintegrates (in the bowels or the bin), but bad gifts are forever…

However, to my pleasant surprise, it didn’t turn out half bad. So much so that I am still putting off actually gifting the pillowcase. What’s even better, the stitching clearly documents my progress in mastering the stem stitch, front and back!

Look here: this is the back side of the first hunk I’ve stitched. I went with the advice that it doesn’t really matter how messed up the back is, if the front looks fine. Looking back, I don’t think it was too great of an advice… the amount of tangled, loose and knotted threads ended up looking like a jungle that I’m not too proud of. Yikes!!! I’m pretty sure it will also show once you insert the pillow…

At the time I thought Hunk Numero Uno didn’t look half bad! I didn’t even notice that more than half of the stitching was, in fact, an outline stitch. The penny started to drop with Hunk no. 2. By the time I was stitching the third, red-haired bodybuilder, I’ve managed to keep my stitching as tidy as it gets. If not for the random knots, you wouldn’t even tell which was the front and which was the back!

This project was a great lesson in patience. It showed me that I can rest assured my technique will improve as long as I keep on stitching! Knowing that I can and will bridge the gap between what I can do and what I want to be able to do is something that keeps me from throwing my stitchwork out the window when I’m dissatisfied with the result.

Hand-embroidery is very forgiving… as long you’re able to forgive yourself!