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As I reflected on in the video, the french knot started out rough. You may think by looking at this photo that I completely skipped or forgot to do line 1; however, if you look more closely you'll see a bunch of small holes from my first attempts that ended so disastrously that I had to move on to a new line because there were too many holes to keep the thread in place. Line 2, wasn't much better. Only one of the 6 knots actually looked like knots. This is when I paused and rewatched the tutorial for a 3rd time, paying much closer attention to the individual steps, which made me realize that I hadn't been doing a crucial step: bringing the knot that was on the needle down to the fabric before threading through completely. (I came to the task feeling rather impatient and tired after a long day and wasn't paying much attention the first few watches). In line 3, you'll see an immediate improvement! That said, one thing sewing is teaching me is attention to detail :)

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Here are more practice attempts at the french knot. Again, they aren't perfect (peep line 5), but there is a clear progression. (I went back to line 1 at the end to practice more, but left the first holes out because they were unusable due to my first practice attempts.)

If anything, today underscored the importance of practice over perfection! And also, like last time, today is one of those days where I can see a clear progression of my skills over the course of the semester. The french knot was nearly impossible for me at the beginning of this project when I was sewing buttons. (You have no idea how many videos I watched then and how much I practiced but to no avail!) However, after learning a bunch of different techniques and simply practicing a whole lot (and gaining patience along the way), eventually the french knot became something I'm kind of good at and had no trouble with! Practice doesn't make perfect necessarily, but it does lead to progress.

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Reflection: Satin Stitch and Whipped Back

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Reflection: Satin Stitch and Whipped Back

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As I mentioned in the video, I also finished out the rainbow centerpiece today. The directions do call for the chain stitch, but admittedly, I used the whipped back stitch. I struggled so much with the chain stitch last time so I didn't want to showcase that in the centerpiece :) Instead, I'll plan to practice the chain stitch again soon in a different space, one that feels a little more low stakes.

I also can't believe that I can do a whipped back stitch without batting an eye now. Like, it's been weeks since I've done that stitch and it came back so easily. I didn't even have to review it or anything. After today, I can officially say I feel proud of myself.

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Today I learned the satin stitch, which like the fishbone stitch, was really fun! (Let's say I definitely got into the flow state with this one...an hour passed very quickly!) As I mentioned in the video, I started out by trying a technique for this stitch that I watched on a tutorial. Those attempts were good, but I was curious to see if a different technique would work. So I went for it! (The last bright pink heart). I'd like to try it again before I draw any conclusions, but I might actually like it better. It's hard to believe that I'm figuring out my own ways of approaching a particular style of stitch--I never would have thought this about myself when I started this project!

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I started on the whipped back stitch today as well. There's a large portion of the design that utilizes this stitch, so I'll have plenty of time to practice more. I wanted to learn it today since I'd practiced the back stitch so much, and this one essentially builds from that. This one was actually kind of fun! You do a back stitch then get to weave the thread back through the loops all the way to the top. As my tutorial video demonstrated, next time I want to try using a different colored thread to loop back through to create a candy cane design.

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This was by far the most simple stitch I've learned yet! I'm surprised they didn't have us complete this one first to build confidence and a little basic skill.

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This was my second day back stitching. As I reflect in the video, I was surprised and pleased with how quickly it came back to me. Though the letters were a bit trickier than what I did last time, you can see that overall my back stitches were much neater than my first attempt (glance to the right to see.) See the smaller letters that make up the labels? Those are also supposed to be back stitches. I didn't quite have the patience to deal with those today, so I'll come back to that soon.

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Reflection Pt 1: Sewing A Button (Attempt #2)

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Reflection Pt 1: Sewing A Button (Attempt #2)

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Reflection Pt 2: Sewing a Button (Attempt #2)

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Reflection Pt 2: Sewing a Button (Attempt #2)

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Sewing detritus from practicing knots (many many times)

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Sewing detritus from practicing knots (many many times)

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Finished product -- Not as pretty but much more sturdy

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Finished product -- Not as pretty but much more sturdy

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Reflection: Sewing a Button (Attempt #1)

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Reflection: Sewing a Button (Attempt #1)

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It took me so long to set this up!

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The chain stitch was TOUGH for me, as you can see. The first attempt was probably my best, most likely because there were fewer threads. Since it was my first sew of the day, perhaps I was also feeling more calm and confident. On the second attempt I messed up (I'm still not sure why), and consequently my self-efficacy diminished, so much so that I couldn't finish out the practice stitches this time around due to frustration. The rainbow centerpiece is partly chain stitch, so I need to do some trouble-shooting next time by watching a different tutorial video or reading up on tips to complete this stitch successfully.

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As I mentioned in the video, today I came back to the whipped back stitch, which I find pretty fun. I started with some practice stitches, then came to this rainbow centerpiece. (The unfinished sections are going to be a chain stitch, which I'll learn next). My biggest learning moment here was with the top layer of the rainbow, which you can see is not as neat as the other layers. So far with this kit, I haven't had to think too critically about the length of the thread I used, and I didn't here either. But I should have! I needed a really long thread to be able to make it all the way across the layer and then back through. The messy part is where my initial thread ran out and I had to start over with a new thread. With the subsequent layers, I took this into consideration and they are much neater.

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As I reflected in my video, today I circled back to stem stitching and learned the back stitch. I was excited that stem stitching came back to me pretty quickly, though I upped the ante by using thicker thread. As you can see, the thicker threaded attempts are not as neat, so I will need to practice that more. Next, I moved on to the back stitch. I watched a quick tutorial, and set off. Though the stem stitch was pretty simple, the back stitch was even simpler. The biggest challenge I faced with it was coming back through the same hole, which led the entire thread to come back out and I'd have to start over. So, finding the right spot to move the needle back through was the challenge. Speaking of challenges, it was a fun challenge to attempt back stitching the letter "S" and number "1." The S was more challenging because of the curves, while the 1 was more straightforward. Overall, I felt proud of myself after completing those shapes.

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Today I came back to the long and short stitch, which I learned last time. The magenta petal is my second attempt, and I think it shows. As I reflected last time, this time I wanted to try it a little differently to make it neater. First, I used my own satin stitch technique (versus the one suggested in the tutorial I watched). Second, I made a conscious effort to bring the needle through the middle of the long stitch versus right underneath it. Of course once I brought this technique over to the bright pink flower it didn't work as well on the first petal because I, for some reason, wasn't sewing straight. However, each subsequent petal was neater and overall the flower is something I'm pleased with. (And yes, I added those french knots in the middle even though they weren't part of the design :)) As I reflect in the video, this underscores my need to do some practice stitches as I move forward to the real deal. I need to buy a few more of blank embroidery hoops for practice before sewing on clothes!

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The yellow petal at the bottom is my first attempt at the long and short stitch, which is a progression from the satin stitch that I learned last time. Like the other filler stitches, I really enjoyed this one. But also like the other filler stitches, it's going to take some practice to get everything looking as smooth and neat as possible. One thing that I will do differently then is to stitch through the petal outline (versus inside of it) for an overall neater and layered look. Can't wait to start with this one next time!

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You can't really see the blood anymore, but I did stab myself with a needle today on accident...whoops. I also dropped a needle somewhere in the carpet, which I never could find...

Something else I struggled with was using the thicker needle for the embroidery floss. Perhaps I need to start utilizing my thimble, which I haven't learned how to do yet.

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For the smaller lettering, I'm supposed to use the back stitch. I knew last time I wouldn't have the patience for such small and delicate sewing, but I was ready for it today (because I find the whipped back stitch so relaxing!) As you can see, things started out well, but the G got a little tough.

These little letters took a surprising amount of time. With each one, I would have to rethread the needle and tie a knot, which added time to the task. For the next attempt (the word "chain"--posted below), I threaded one really long thread. Instead of having to go through the process of rethreading the needle each time, with a long thread I didn't have to do that. I only had to reknot the end. Therefore, "chain" took considerably less time, even though the word had smaller lettering.

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Initially, I was very intimated by these "filler" stitches, but after learning and practicing the fishbone stitch, I'm feeling more confident. In fact, the fishbone stitch was so enjoyable that this was the experience I was searching for when I selected sewing as my project.

I learned a couple important things with this stitch:

1. Similar to last time, on my first attempt I underestimated how much thread I would need--and you need quite a bit for the fishbone. As you can see on the first leaf, I ran out of thread before I could complete it. I had plenty of thread for the next leaves.

2. With both this stitch and the chain stitch, it was much more efficient and effective to not turn the hoop over to see where the needle would need to thread back in. Instead, I practiced seeing where the needle would come back through to the front by not turning the hoop over. I had to rely more on feel. If I didn't do this, it would have taken way longer (and the fishbone already took me awhile as is). As you can see, on the second-fourth attempts, my new strategy seemed to work really well, but for some reason wasn't as neat looking on the fifth attempt.

Overall, today was a day of some high highs and low lows!

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I saved this stitch for last because it was the most intimidating to me, but honestly it wasn't as difficult as some of the others! This stitch, like the satin stitch, was one that I eventually figured out the correct technique for with more practice. The first two roses don't look horrible, but they also don't look particularly floral. My mistake was weaving the needle through each individual spoke versus every other spoke, and I'm not sure the tutorial mentioned this because I watched it a few times! While in the middle of my second attempt, I realized that going every other spoke would create a more layered petal-like look, so I tried it on the last attempt and it actually worked!

I feel like this example captures how much I've grown over the course of this project. Without having some skill and knowledge--which I've developed over the last few months--I'm not sure I would have been able to figure out a better/new way forward or even have had the confidence to experiment with this new way forward. That said, I can now see how crucial competence, practice, confidence, and risk-taking are in developing creative skills! This greatly inspires me as a teacher, and will make me think more critically about how I'm intentionally scaffolding learning and giving students time/space to experiment during this learning.

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I know this looks very simple, but after finishing "chain" I feel the most accomplished I've felt so far in this project. These letters are TINY, but overall I think they look quite neat. I was also able to complete this pretty quickly after figuring out a strategy to be more efficient with threading/knotting (more in the "Back to Back" post). I definitely wouldn't have been able to do this a few weeks ago! I've developed a bit more patience, skill, and fluency.

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The 2nd stem stitch actually went a lot better than this looks...! At first, I simply messed up something on the back, but was able to quickly correct myself and keep going.

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Overall, I did have some fun today. Except with threading needles!! I found a helpful Reddit post at the beginning of the process that worked for me, but then, for some reason, it stopped working on my 2nd attempt at a 2 thread stem stitch. So, I improvised and just used 1 thread so I could at least have more practice with the technique. I think it was my best attempt yet. Once I got the stem stitch pattern down, it was actually pretty fun! I just need to work on my threading a bit.