Symmetry

I wanted mum's sampler to have something on it that wasn't about shading so I had a go at symmetry. A simple Butterfly seems easy but when the wings are filled in with a regular pattern it becomes incredibly obvious if the two sides are slightly different. The general design idea was that it be very stylised and I included a little bit of gold thread for contrast since I had it already and didn't end up using it for the bellydancer's hipscarf - waste not, want not and all that.

 I sewed the whole of the left side first then used different techniques to create symmetry for the top and bottom wings on the right side. The top wing was done by recreating the filling pattern then doing the stem stitch round the edge, the bottom wing was the other way round. Neither technique is entirely satisfactory. Sewing the filling first results in exact symmetry but the outline is very difficult to keep smooth when it is done second so I would need to work on my stem stitch. Doing the edging first creates a nicer finish but a single miss-count has resulted in a slight difference in the shape which then becomes obvious when the pattern is filled in. The conclusion is that symmetry is very difficult and if I want to try it again some time I will have to pay close attention.