Yesterday I stitched a long, long time. It was wonderful. Now that another section of the Royal Persian Blossom project is finished, I can see that my transfer of one whole section wasn't correct. Worst of all, it's supposed to be a mirror image - but it isn't. I'm about 60% happy with it but the things that are bothering me are REALLY bothering me so I'm going to try to fix them. Unfortunately, it may not be possible since I drew over the pounce with a sepia pen. I knew the project would take a long time and I didn't want the lines to fade.Some of what's bothering me is the stitching and some of it is the transfer. Numbers 1a and 1b are transfer problems. This is after I fixed it three times and it's still not good enough. More about ideas for fixing this mess later.All of numbers 2 - 4 are due to sloppy stitching, I think. Although the transfer might not be perfect, I'm pretty sure I can fix these niggling things by placing the stitches just on the inside or just on the outside of the line that isn't quite in the right place. The problem with 1a and 1 b is that I transferred the shape in the completely wrong place on the right side.  I redrew it a few times and stitched parts of it three times trying to correct the alignment. I did correct the alignment but completely messed the beautiful curved shape you see on the left. The right side shape looks more like a fat worm. Ugh. I'm not sure if I can fix it more but I think I can make the curve smoother. First I'll try an experiment to see if rubbing alcohol will get the pen line out (on a test piece of fabric of course!). If that works then I can re-draw the shape and it will be fine. If it doesn't work, then my only choice is to smooth out the curve on the bottom edge of the right shape.2a and 2b have more to do with stitching that transferring. The bump on the top gold line on the right isn't smooth and I know I can fix that. It's a little thing but it's driving me nuts.The blue line in the middle of the gold outlined shape - 3a and 3b - is not centered on the left side. That blue line is all done by eye. My eye can do better.

4a is again the mistake of my eye. The blue chain stitch line doesn't turn the corner in the same spot that the gold lines do. 4b looks good and everything is lined up nicely.

Symmetry is pretty important to get right. The eye shouts out "Wrong!" when something is almost but not quite symmetrical. Perfection isn't what I'm striving for here. I'm human and I'm pretty sure I can't make some exactly symmetrical - close, yes: exactly, no. But I know I can do better than this.Most of the mistakes are due to the transfer process. I use prick and pounce and tried to transfer all of the details of the design. In some places the design is so complex that the pounce looked like a gray snow storm had fallen on the linen. It was a mess. Next time I stitch this design, I will use a pen and a light box.I'm now going to go begin to fix some of these things and do my rubbing alcohol test on a scrap of linen. I'll let you see the results in a few days.What do you do when the symmetrical isn't symmetrical? What's your level of tolerance for it being less than perfect?