Golden Lion Tamarin - Sew Along Part 3

Today we are going to start the face for our monkey and talk about the double running stitch

To start you are going to want to take you face shape and place it on the front of the head, in the center. This picture is a little inaccurate because I don't have my ribbon in place yet. If you've been following along with this sew along you should have a piece of ribbon poking out behind the gold felt at the center of the top of the head. 

Now you'll want to get the thread that matches your face color. I like to use regular sewing thread, but you can use a couple strands of embroidery floss if you prefer. I find that enough thread to go around your shape a little more than 4 times is usually a good amount. I then take my thread, double it up, and make a knot. 

Once you have your thread doubled and  knotted and your face shape in place, take your needle and come up through the back of the head, through the head and face.

The green arrow shows where you came up through the back of the head on the previous step. The blue arrow is where the needle is going next, through the front of the face shape and through the head to the back. That's your first stitch! 

Since I use thread so similar in color to the felt, the stitches in the pictures are hard to see. I've roughly drawn them in with more noticeable colors for more visibility. 

Keep repeating the previous 2 steps.  You want your stitches about 1/8 inch away from the edge of the shape. You want your stitches to measures about 1/4 of an inch and there will be about a 1/4 inch gap between each stitch. 

While you work on the face be careful not to sew into the ribbon. 

Keep  making 1/4 inch stitches with a 1/4 inch gap all the way around the face shape until you are back where you started. 

Now that we're back where we started we want the needle to come up through the back of the head and through the face right beside the end of the stitch that is already there. 

The blue lines indicate the stitches that was already there, and the red is the stitch you are currently making. The needle is going back through the face directly beside the end of the next stitch that is already there. 

The red line between the blue lines shows the completed stitch from the previous step. The needle is now coming up where the next stitch will be, immediately next to the end of the blue stitch already in place. The stitches you are making now fill the gaps from when you went around the first time.

Keep repeating the previous few steps until you've filled in all the gaps and you have a solid line of stitches around the face. Once you've got a complete line of stitches you want your needle and thread to be on the back side of the head. 

Just like we did with the ribbon, put you needle and thread under a few of the stitches you already made on the back side of the head, being careful not to go though the front. Before you  pull the thread tight, place the needle though the loop that is formed. Then pull tight. Now you've got a nice knot. Cut off your excess thread, leaving a tiny tail.

Next we'll be covering adding all the face details.

The Golden Lion Tamarin pattern is available for purchase here.