The perfect stitch

[ezsebeth]

When I look at my work I see that some stitches look awefull.
So I decided to start a quest for THE perfect stitch

So how do all of you make your stitches look awesome and perfect?

[kuja.girl]

Simple answer: Practice.
Long answer: Practice, patience, and some research.
Here's a guide with good photos: http://crossstitch.about.com/od/learnho ... ngtech.htm

I will say that I do NOT do as the guide describes. Instead I take care to straighten my thread (unwind the twists I've put into it) as I pull it down (I don't poke it with a needle) and that usually does the trick.You can also straighten some twisting after the fact but it's harder and you will fray the floss if you mess with it for long.

[starrley]

Simple answer: Practice.
Long answer: Practice, patience, and some research.

I take care to straighten my thread (unwind the twists I've put into it) as I pull it down (I don't poke it with a needle) and that usually does the trick.You can also straighten some twisting after the fact but it's harder and you will fray the floss if you mess with it for long.

I agree with this! Plus, I think a major key is to make sure that every stitch is crossed the same way. Always begin and end a stitch in the same holes. And make sure you're in the actual hole before you stick it in. (Oh man. @_@) It really does come down to practice.

[Eliste]

While practice helps, washing, blocking and ironing your work once it's done does a lot for making stitches lie nicely.

Water will relax the fibres and the blocking and ironing will really make it look smart. You can make a half way decent job look amazing just by finishing your project right.

[gamerwolff]

Practice practice practice....my first piece asn't that great,,,,another thing tha makes your stitches uniform is using the same amount of tension on your fabric the whole time your stitching as well as keeping the same amount of tension for each stitch as you pull it taut and move on to the next one. They sell fancy tools to aid with this, but over time you just get your own stitching rythm.