How to get fuller looking stitches

[Ephel]

I've been working on this project for a month now and it kind of bothers me that the aida is coming through on most of the stitches, a few of the blues fill out nicely but the black especially seems to fill out differently. I'm using 2 strands of floss on 16 count aida, if anyone has a solution for future projects.

[Firehawke]

I've heard some people say that the stitches fluff up with washing. I'm not sure how accurate that is...I have a serious lack of FFOs...but hopefully others will be able to say if this is true or not.

You may also want to try 3 strands...I've heard of a number of people who have experimented with the number of strands they use to figure out which coverage they like for each project.

Good luck!

[Ascott89]

Hello! In a reddit i follow there is this person who always has full beautiful stitches. She uses 3 strands for 14 and 16 Aida!

[La Ptite Bete]

That's interesting...
Has someone here ever tried to wash their finished project, and does it make the stitches "fluff up" indeed ?...
Using 3 strands can be a good idea too... but it multiplies the cost by 1.5, for big projects it can be significant ! **shrugs**

[Delver01]

I noticed that my stitches look a loot better since I made a conscious effort to stop pulling so hard on my needle as I stitch.

[Clarington]

I've always had this issue with 16ct aida. I find it doesn't cover as well as I like with 2 strands of floss, but I really don't like stitching with 3 strands. My choice is to rarely stitch on 16ct fabric. I use 18ct as my standard now because I like the coverage I get with 2 strands of floss.

The darker floss colours are definitely worse than the lighter colours for coverage, so if you're doing a dark piece like this one you could always use black aida instead. Although it can be a serious pain to stitch dark on dark, and the fabric can be a bit harder to find. I've also heard that Anchor black is better for coverage than DMC black although I haven't tried it myself.

Like Delver said, tension can also make a huge difference. And washing does help. I'm not sure that it really fluffs the stitches at all, but it does seems to shrink the holes in the fabric at least a little bit. I've done a couple of pieces that I was pretty unhappy with while I was stitching, but once they were washed and framed ended up looking much better.

[Ephel]

Thank you all for your input and advice, I really appreciate it! I dont think I would like working with 3 strands, though looking at the small holes of 18ct and smaller tends to give me headaches, so I'll have to find what works best for me for future projects to have a more filled out look. And hopefully washing the piece once done helps at least a little bit.