To finish @aggressivelyarospec‘s Aggressively Arospectacular 2022 event, I have a final embroidery piece to share with you all.
(I live in Australia, so for me the week is complete. What’s the good of living in the future, however, if you can’t indulge in a little time trickery … as long as it’s still Saturday somewhere?)
In contrast to the Aro Bag, this one’s so subtle folks can be forgiven for not recognising it as pride-themed:
I know that green and gold arrows represent my being allo-aro, but few will ever recognise this as a pride piece.
This piece was stitched on cream calico. If you can wait for a 30-50% sale at Lincraft, you’ll get a decent amount of cloth for a few dollars and the colour is close to the fabric provided in K-Mart’s embroidery kits for matching-wall-of-hoop-art purposes. (I didn’t intend to make one, but, well, I now have one.) It isn’t my preferred embroidery fabric due to its thinness and looser weave, but for stitch practice or general experimentation, I like the price!
So when I wanted to try out an embroidery stencil I bought from Daiso, I pulled out said calico. I couldn’t visualise how I wanted to fill in the lines, so I traced them onto the fabric with a Pilot Frixion marker and stitched over said lines in a running stitch, using two colours to create the effect of arrows going in alternate directions. The beauty of a repeating-pattern design like this is that it’s quick to stitch up, looks effective using basic stitches and doesn’t require much thread–ideal for sewing beginners who feel daunted by more involved or complex designs.
(You don’t even need the stencil: this design isn’t too difficult to draw out with a ruler.)
I am tempted to do this again on a larger fabric swatch to make another drawstring bag … but next time I’d work the middle stitch between the arrowheads in white, to better resemble the allo-aro flag, instead of making a longer green arrowhead and a shorter gold one.
While this piece is very simple, it provides subtlety, ease of stitching and utility beyond mere hoop art. What’s not to like?
Aro Worlds 