I was working in the lab late one night part 3

Oh, baby vampire, I love you so. I especially love that I've accidentally sewed you a pimp cloak. You're so cool.

So yes, I've been working on the Long and Short Stitch Shading (L&SSS) for the past few days. It is remarkably relaxing. I was so worried at first, since this is my first time using it and all the examples I've seen of it are much smaller. The baby vampire's cape is about three inches long, but all the examples I've seen have been only an inch long. I think that L&SSS would have been an impossible obstacle for my anxiety if I wasn't treating it, for a couple of reasons. First, the aforementioned length problem. I can feel my brain trying to cripple me. It's screaming that the L&SSS should only be used for small areas and that no matter what I do I'm going to fail because I'm doing it wrong. Since I'm treating it I can use logic to shut that up. The videos I've watched and books I've read are tutorials; there's no reason that a tutorial would involve eight square inches of fabric. Since I'm treating the disorder I can actually use that to ignore the voice. Before, no matter how much logic I used the voice would win.

The second reason my disorder would be crippling me here is because I'm using it in a way the tutorials don't show. Instead of going from dark to light and stopping I'm repeating the pattern over and over again because the cape is so long. I chose to do this, but I can still hear that voice telling me that I'm violating some rule of L&SSS and therefore everyone will point and laugh at my poor baby vampire. I very well might be violating some rule of the stitch, but at this point I can put that to the side. I'm still learning and it's natural to make mistakes. I love that I can tell myself that and actually believe it as opposed to it not sticking at all.

I am happy the way it's turning out. L&SSS is probably the most challenging and time-consuming stitch I've done, if only because I have to switch thread so often. Keeping the stitches straight and the tension uniform is also a challenge. If things aren't consistent it starts to look a bit like a sneeze, which is not the effect I'm going for. I've had to start over a section or two because things were just going wonky, but that's life.

I like how the stitch looks. Compared to the padded Satin Stitch, L&SSS looks almost painted on since it lies flush against the fabric. So far it also looks great with the Portuguese Knotted Stem Stitch outline where the outline looks like fur edging or something. I like how relaxing it is to sew this stitch. It's very slow, so it's easy to get into a rhythm and just go with it. I also like how the multiple colors really pop next to the monochromatic baby vampire. I also like how it make the padded Satin Stitch look more luxurious. All in all, I'm glad with the way this is going.


Even if my baby vampire ends up with a pimp cloak.