The Needle DOES Make a Difference

I found this out the hard way this weekend. With the end of the month coming, I wanted to try to finish the bullion flowers on Kathryn Drummond's Gelati al Cioccolato.

I spent a very frustrating hour trying to stitch first bullion and didn't understand why it wasn't working for me. I knew I could do it, otherwise Cupcake Delight would still be a WIP. I was using the right technique and even confirmed it by watching Mary Corbet's video. So why wasn't it working? No matter how loosely I wrapped the thread around the milliner needle, I could never pull the needle through.

It took a while, but as I was playing with the needle, passing my fingers over the head, I noticed the head was slightly bigger than the body. Below you'll see two milliner needles. The one on the right is the one I got in my Gelati al Cioccolato kit and the one on the left came with Cupcake Delight.

You have to look really close, but the right has an eye bigger than the shaft (body)

In class, Kathryn said that in order to successfully stitch a bullion, your needle's eye needs to be the same size as it's shaft. The milliner needle I got with my class kit wasn't. So I took out the milliner needle I received my Cupcake Delight class kit and tried it again.

The unfinished one was my first attempt after switching out the needle. I wasn't crazy about the look (the tension was all off), so I decided to start a new one and see if it would improve. The second attempt is much better :)