Aromantic Narratives and Creativity
As I post weekly pride patch patterns on Patreon, here’s a monthly round-up for non-subscribers!
Folks who need help with materials, stitching, finishing or attaching patches should check out my tutorial master page.
Previous patterns are available at my pattern gallery.
I’m working on a few different projects at the moment, involving fiction and stitching alike. But, because I am really pleased with how one project is going, I thought I’d post a teaser photo of my forthcoming pendant/keychain-sized embroidery pattern:
This tester/experimental piece isn’t perfect: I used cheap thread from a kit, I don’t have gold jump hoops in my stash of findings, and I haven’t erased the heat-erasable pen I used to draw the pattern. (While the inked lines of the pattern are visible after sewing, they’re not horribly obvious in real life. Folks with non-erasable or washable pens and markers should still give this project a go!) It turned out much cuter than expected, though, so I’ll be keeping it.
The hoop is a pendant-sized hoop I bought from Spotlight, and I know folks may not have access to one of this specific size, making it problematic to offer up a pattern! But this piece also looks good set inside a 7.5 cm / 3 inch round hoop for wall art, and I’m working on making this design into a patch. If you can’t source mini oval embroidery hoops, you’ll still be able to sew this.
The best part about this piece? It’s so quick to stitch up!
As I now post weekly pride patch patterns on Patreon, I thought non-subscribers may appreciate a monthly round-up!
Folks who need help with materials, stitching, finishing or attaching patches should check out my tutorial master page.
Previous patterns are available at my pattern gallery.
To everybody who doesn’t want another embroidery-themed post, I apologise. Another lockdown has taken my anxiety disorder to just short of “breakdown”. I’m in what I call the “spending my days desperately trying not to think” stage, in which anxiety or distress about one big thing leaves me unable to manage (read: “muddle through with”) my many normal anxieties. Since there’s no immediate release from the main trigger, I’m floundering.
(While Australia is having conversations about lockdowns and mental health, there isn’t enough acknowledgement of the way a pandemic–our health now more obviously impacted by other people’s actions–creates additional stresses for folks who already couldn’t trust family, friends, doctors and politicians to ensure our health and safety. This stress doubles when we’re still required to interact with those people who placed their privilege, convenience or pleasure above our health.)
Sewing provides me the distraction needed to steer my brain past the jagged rocks of crying panic. As I had one more K-Mart embroidery kit, well.
If you live in a country that isn’t Australia, this post may offer minimal usefulness. As my online presence involves the provision of content nobody asks for, however, here it is: a rundown of the embroidery-related things I like, where I found them and how I make my sewing hobby just a little more affordable.
I’ll admit it: I’m not a fan of generic positivity. Maybe I am a bitter, loveless aro … and maybe I’m a disabled person who’s tired of how the ableds implore me to “look on the bright side” and “be grateful it isn’t worse”. Either way, in my opinion, there’s a special place in hell reserved for whomever first uttered the words “live, laugh, love”!
Given that such phrases aren’t to my taste, I hadn’t planned on stitching this kit … until I saw them on clearance for $2 AUD. Why not practice my satin stitch by giving one an idemromantic makeover during Victoria’s fifth lockdown?
I thought I’d continue the Pride Month theme by expanding my library of patterns to encompass non-aromantic identities. Alas, this isn’t a fully-inclusive collection! Many identities require letters not yet designed, as I’ve completed only one of my patch pattern alphabets. While today’s patterns do use some new or modified letters, time constraints meant that I chose identities with simpler-for-me names.
Additional queer, polysexual, asexual and bisexual text patch patterns–along with a lower-case alphabet that can be adapted to any horizontal, five-striped pride flag–are available at my patch pattern gallery. Folks wishing “genderfluid” or “omnisexual” patches can use this alphabet to create their own patterns by following my tutorial. I also have several aromantic-spectrum text patterns, many of which can be adapted for asexual spectrum identities.
Folks who need help with materials, stitching, finishing or attaching patches should check out last week’s pride text tutorial and my tutorial master page.
Last June, I broadened my tutorial series with heart patches that suit a range of LGBTQIA+ and queer identities. This year, I thought I’d continue this (short) tradition by going literal: three, four, five, six, seven and ten-stripe text pride patches that say … well, pride!
You’ll need familiarity with cross stitch (full crosses and fractional stitches) and backstitch to make unedged patches, along with a buttonhole/closed blanket 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.
For additional information on the stitching process for text patches, please see part one of this miniseries. Beginners should also read last year’s tutorial for an overview of materials, finishes, treatments and fabric/edging modifications.
In my days of chronic pain and familial interruption, I found patch patterns easiest to create. I started by sharing a handful of new and expanded/variant pattens with my Patreon supporters … and then, on a bit of a Photoshop roll, reworked some of my older patterns with needed letter-shape and template changes.
(I created my original lower-case “aro” pattern before a complete lower-case flag-stripe alphabet with standardised letter width. Inconsistencies between old pattern and new alphabet, though, make it difficult to use said pattern as a base for custom lower-case text. Time for an update!)
Due to pain limitations, I again offer a collection of cross stitch text patterns without stitched examples. Folks wishing to stitch the “abro”, “aro”, “alloaro” and “aroace” patterns can find finished examples on parts one and two of my text patch miniseries, but please expect slight differences from the updated designs.
All previous patterns are available at my new pattern gallery. Folks who need help with materials, stitching, finishing or attaching patches should check out my tutorial master page.
Between chronic pain and familial goings-on, I haven’t had the time or spoons I need for writing. I do have a little something to show off, however: another aromanticised embroidery kit!
(“Aromanticised” is a word, I swear.)
K-Mart’s rainbow-themed embroidery kit all but demands a queer makeover. I mean … rainbow, right? After pondering a wealth of options, I chose the nebularomantic flag because the printed design accommodates a seven stripe flag without my repeating colours or making major modifications.
My satin stitch is improving! I am not good at starting and finishing stitches in the same place, but the odd instances of poking-out stitches don’t much distract from the finished design. The main problem is that unneven maroon-coloured “starburst-style” cluster (a few stitches sewn together) on the left-hand side of the rainbow. When sewing the red-pink stripe, distracted by TV, I pulled a section of my stitches taut against the fabric. This tugged the fabric above that section out of place. Tension is a demanding mistress, but I will learn to respect her!
Continue reading “Embroidery Kit Makeover: Nebularo Rainbow”