Last we saw of the Dusty Pink Rose was at http://elmsleyrose.blogspot.com/2008/12/historical-sampler-dusty-pink-rose.html

While working on Ick during the day, I’ve been buttonholing at night, and have finished another petal.

Again, it is just resting on top of the others in the photo. It’s starting to look like the real thing now

I haven’t used anywhere near enough light pink. The only way you are going to be able to see it is by lifting petals and peering into the middle. It’s the top layer that is most important, and I’m being careful to get a nice 1/3 of light pink there. (I started it last night – the last one!)

On this petal, on starting and ending threads, I didn’t weave them further around the cordonette as you are supposed to. I used a looped knot. I find it much neater.

The cordonette can really build up in bulk once you have a few threads woven through it. If you are weaving back up through a finished part, it can look untidy and you can only hope that the buttonhole edge finishing step will tidy it and tighten the threads up into a coherent, neat and nearly invisible bundle.

I also realized that it’s a good idea to use a fairly tightly wound thread for the cordonette. The YLI is very loosely wound, which means individual strands can escape when you are sewing down the cordonette and it can also be a bit loose. I used DMC instead, and it was fine even tho it’s not that tightly woven itself.

The last thing was not to even bother to try to secure the beginning of the wire in the buttonholing at the edge. I left about 3 mm loose, and buttonholed it in when I came back around from the other side, when everything was much more secure.