Better satin stitching. I adore a satin stitch, do you? Getting it to lay flat and smooth, with a nice shape and edge, along with that satin-y sheen is all like a little bit of magic to me. Satin stitches can also be a little tricky. When you start out with a nice predictable shape, it's easy to just stitch away by going the length of the shape and just following the edges in a horizontal or vertical direction.
But when you start out with a shape that also has a directional style to it, it starts to get a little tricky. This petal shape, loses all it's petal-like swag if it's just stitched in a row by row satin stitch that doesn't flow with the direction of the petal.
Your end goal will be something like this instead:
When you're starting out, it seems pretty straightforward, you just slightly angle your stitches as you go.
But right about the time you get a 1/3 of the way in, those angles start to be harder and harder to work with and it starts clumping into one giant fabric hole at the point of the petal. Making that turn on the arc becomes more and more difficult to pull off.
So instead try this method. Do your first stitch, your last stitch and then divide the whole shape into half with one more stitch.
Now go back to the left side, and divide each of those sections in half with a stitch.
And then again: You'll notice as you move along, that the bottom of your stitch can get buried alongside of the ones next to it, without all converging into one needle hole.
You will just continue this process of dividing each segment in half until your petal is complete.
Random thought... Sometimes a leaf stitch is beautiful as a petal... leaf stitch makes a lovely petal...
