Are you an aromantic or otherwise queer person wanting more text patch designs for seven-stripe pride flags? Do you crave patches depicting longer words like “aromantic asexual”? I now have a complete alphabet to accompany my many seven-stripe block text patterns. Plus patterns for the words “aromantic”, “asexual”, “aplatonic” … and even more a-spectrum terms!
You’ll need familiarity with cross stitch (full crosses and fractional stitches) and backstitch to make unedged patches, along with buttonhole stitch to make the edged patches shown above. The first instalment of this patch tutorial series demonstrates cross and blanket/buttonhole stitch, while the second covers backstitch. While these patterns use fractional stitches to round off most letters, they can be omitted for a more pixellated look.
Folks after patterns suitable for five and ten-stripe pride flags should check out my other Aro Alphabet posts!
Notes on Pattern Structure
Full coloured blocks indicate a full cross stitch. Letter outlines indicate backstitch.
Blocks divided on the diagonal by a line of backstitch, each half a different colour, indicate quarter stitches. Please see my first text tutorial and my pride text tutorial for more information on backstitching outlines and placing quarter/fractional stitches.
Space for edging your patch is not shown in the patterns below. You’ll need to allow additional blocks for this when cutting your swatch, depending on how narrow or thick you like your edges.
Letter Patterns: Alphabet
All letters are fourteen blocks/stitches high, comprising seven horizontal stripes formed by two rows of stitches.
All letters save “I”, “M” and “W” are nine blocks/stitches wide:
The letter “I” is three stitches wide, while “M” and “W” are twelve stitches wide.
These patterns show two blocks/stitches’ space between each letter, as this is the tracking I use for the majority of my text designs. This can be increased or decreased as preferred.
While these letters can be divided into fourteen stripes, or sewn in various combinations of wider and narrower stripes that fit a fourteen-block base, they aren’t suitable for other flag styles if you wish accurately-even stripes.
Text Patterns: A-Spec
While I create these alphabets so you can make any pride-themed text, I’ve expanded my fourteen-block pattern collection with a few more ready-to-stitch identity terms!
Aplatonic
The seven-stripe “aplatonic” pattern fits a rectangle 95 stitches wide and 18 stitches high. Assuming a three stitch border, as for my other patches, this means you’ll want a 98 x 21 block swatch plus any excess (if used unmodified).
Aromantic
The seven-stripe “aromantic” pattern fits a rectangle 98 stitches wide and 18 stitches high. Assuming a three stitch border, as for my other patches, this means you’ll want a 101 x 21 block swatch plus any excess (if used unmodified).
Arovague
The five-stripe “arovague” pattern fits a rectangle 90 stitches wide and 18 stitches high. Assuming a three stitch border, as for my other patches, this means you’ll want a 93 x 21 block swatch plus any excess (if used unmodified).
Asexual
The seven-stripe “asexual” pattern fits a rectangle 79 stitches wide and 18 stitches high. Assuming a three stitch border, as for my other patches, this means you’ll want an 82 x 21 block swatch plus any excess (if used unmodified).
Cassflux
The seven-stripe “cassflux” pattern fits a rectangle 90 stitches wide and 18 stitches high. Assuming a three stitch border, as for my other patches, this means you’ll want a 93 x 21 block swatch plus any excess (if used unmodified).
Iamvano
The seven-stripe “iamvano” pattern fits a rectangle 76 stitches wide and 18 stitches high. Assuming a three stitch border, as for my other patches, this means you’ll want a 79 x 21 block swatch plus any excess (if used unmodified).
All patterns use a two-block tracking between letters as well as two rows/columns of background stitching spaced above, below and beside the text. You may like to decrease or increase either, especially between certain letters or words, but consistent tracking and/or spacing makes it easier to estimate swatch size and create new patterns from existing ones.
Please see my first alphabet tutorial for more information on tracking and spacing. Additionally, my pattern gallery has more patterns to use for estimating fabric swatches or as a base for custom patterns.
Combining and Customising Patterns
My “aaa” patch (using my allo-aro agender flag) is easily made with my seven-stripe “aro” pattern by swapping the letters “r” and “o” for “a”.
The new seven-stripe “aromantic”, “asexual” and “aplatonic” patterns–along with my older “aroace” and “acearo” patterns–can be combined with shorter patterns to create complete a-spec terms. (Again, I created the seven-stripe “aromantic” and “aro” patterns largely for use with other aromantic-spectrum identity flags.) As every pattern has a two block background column both preceding the first letter and following the last, remember to delete one when merging patterns to preserve the tracking between letters. You may also need to delete the first “a” (another nine blocks) in “aromantic”, “asexual” and “aplatonic” when creating single-word patches for terms like “nebularomantic” or “myrsexual”.
Custom patterns for identities comprising two or more separated words–like “aroace agender“–may like to use my seven-stripe “non sam aro” pattern as a spacing guide. I leave five blocks’ space between words, but you may prefer otherwise!
A-spec identities with fourteen-block patterns suitable for combining include:
As words like “iamvanoromantic” occupy significant fabric real estate, you may want to check out my guide to stitching longer text patches. 10-count and 11-count aida is best avoided if you’re planning to attach your patch to smaller bags or garments, while 18-count aida (used on my “alloaro” patch photographed above) creates a thinner, shorter patch.
To further reduce patch size, you can omit the two-block background-colour stitches above, below and beside the letters. This results in a patch four blocks shorter and narrower–which also lessens time spent on border stitching! When omitting these framing background-colour stitches, as shown on my “alloaro” and “arovague” patches, the buttonhole stitch border sits flush against my lettering. To keep my backstitches from being caught beneath my edging stitches, I stitch the letter outlining–or at least those sections abutting the border–last. As I struggle with keeping areas of adjoining stitches neat, stitching the backstitch letter outline over these sections helps create a tidier-looking (or less uneven) patch.
As the buttonhole-stitch border takes a significant amount of time and thread when sewing large patches, you might prefer these alternate border techniques.
This completes my Aro Week pride craft tutorials, but I’m excited to get started on patterns for nine-stripe flags. I need a “loveless aro” text patch on my patch jacket!
Aro Worlds 