@naiyah personally, I enjoyed making the shaped one a bit more than the normal one (partly because it came out a little nicer; partly because it was interesting to make), but I’ve found myself wearing the ‘normal’ version more.
@naiyah thank you 😁 I think standard cotton embroidery floss (e.g. DMC thread) would work fine too. I just happened to have more yarn than string at that tome. Also, working the straight edges technique into the pattern helps it look better.