After a couple of comments on my last post, I thought I'd comment back in an actual post.

Take the stitches OUT? (if I'm not happy with them)

Yikes!

Actually, I have been known to do that. It risks putting holes in the linen or loosening the weave of the actual linen, which will cause tension problems in the embroidery.

I almost always embroider over the top of the problem area. I am talking about an area that is perhaps 5mm by 2mm large - not an entire leaf or flower. If an entire motif was incorrect, I think I'd very carefully remove the thread.

The Rust Red Iris project has so much over-embroidering you wouldn't believe it.

I was a bit concerned about how much over-embroidering I was doing at one stage and talked to Michael of Wormspit.com about it, and he didn't think it was a problem.

You don't want to do it so much that you end up with an effectively 'padded' area because of the build up of thread. And it gets harder to embroider because you are putting the needle through existing threads.

But it's a far preferable option to removing threads in most if not all cases, IMHO.

One exception, where you might want to take the threads out, might be where you need to replace very light threads with very dark ones, or vice versa

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Now, I asked Mary Corbet of www.needlenthread.com about this issue. She is a FAR more experienced embroiderer than I am. She answered in a comment to this post, but I thought it a good idea to put it here, in the main post.

She doesn't do over-sewing. I assume she gets sections correct in the first place, because she's a whole lot better, so doesn't need to correct part of a leaf or petal like I do.

Here's what she said :

Hi, Megan!

I don't generally have a problem taking threads out if I discover a mistake as I go. In fact, I prefer to! If I finish a petal in long and short stitch and it doesn't look quite right because a stitch is out of place, I don't mind going back and stitching over with one sneaky little stitch, but if it's a section that needs correction, I'd just as soon take it out.

Nice thing about long and short stitch is that it's a very forgiving stitch - it's easy to go back and fill in a spot that needs touching up...

But, when it comes to a whole petal looking not-quite-right, I'd rather take it out and start over (unless it could be corrected with one unnoticeable stitch or two).

I'm not one for building up stitches on long and short filling, either!

Oh, and nice thing about linen - it's a tough fabric, generally. You'd be surprised how much you can take out and put back in, without damaging the foundation. In fact, I just took out a whole petal on my silk sampler last week, and it's stitching up just fine over the fabric.

There's a tool called a "boo boo stick" that some stitchers like to use - it's got a spiral and wire brush thing on each end - it works well for brushing off the fuzz from thread, or for helping to remove threads fairly quickly. I've got one, and I use it sometimes, but I'd just as soon use tweezers and snippers to remove threads. I also keep a toothbrush in my box, to brush off fuzzies from the fabric.