I am struggling lately with my stitches looking a bit untidy, way more than they used to in the past. One would think I would get better with time but it seems to be the opposite, I am attaching two pictures to try and show the difference. The one on purple aida is my latest project and the one on white aida is from five years ago.

At first I noticed my supplier was selling lower quality fabric so I upgraded. I used to mix DMC and synthetic thread and I shifted to DMC alone in hope to give my projects a little more consistency. I started stitching more on darker fabric and I wasn't satisfied with the coverage I was getting from 2 strands so I switched to 3 strands. In a last ditch effort I bought dressmaker's wax last week to see if it would change anything and it didn't!

My projects look more shabby now than they did when I used to use random pieces of fabric and thread from Amazon and it's SO ANNOYING. 

I realise it doesn't look too bad and it's indistinguishable from far away but it's frustrating to work on something for such a long time and seeing it close up and it not being neat.

I read that needle size might be a problem? Is there something else I should be doing? Help please 🥹

[CHAT] Any advice on making my stitches a bit neater?