rowietinkers

[rowietinkers]

I love this so much 💖

I wanna share my own version how I made my patch to give an option to ppl who is less sewing skilled:

I selected my fabrics and stitched them into tubes to lay into the pattern

Then I embroidered the text into the lines, doing a first pass (can see in "before it" in second pic here) then whipstitching the text to bold it (going around the thread on the surface to tie it together and make it flow)

Then, I glued each tube onto the fabric as I went, leaving the ends long to be able to trim and fold neatly after

Finally, I stitched thru the tubes with a matching colour embroidery thread and I put some spidery text into a square of calico for the back, before trimming the ends, folding them over and stitching the ends ^~^

And here it is stitched to my jacket! Is the first patch on it 💖

Had a few folks interested in how I made the patches I posted for Solarpunk Aesthetic Week, so I thought I'd give y'all my step-by-step process for making hand-embroidered patches!

First, choose your fabric and draw on your design. You can use basically any fabric for this - for this project I'm using some felt I've had lying around in my stash for ages.

Next, choose your embroidery floss. For my patches I split my embroidery floss into two threads with 3 strands each, as pictured. You can use as many strands in your thread as you prefer, but for the main body of my patches I prefer 3 strands.

Next you're going to start filling your design using a back stitch.

First, put in a single stitch where you want your row to start.

Poke your needle up through the fabric 1 stitch-length away from your first stitch.

Poke your needle back down the same hole your last stitch went into so they line up end-to-end.

Repeat until you have a row of your desired length (usually the length of that colour section from one end to the other). Once you have your first row, you're going to do your next row slightly offset from your first row so that your stitches lay together in a brick pattern like this:

Make sure your rows of stitches are tight together, or you'll get gaps where the fabric shows through.

Rinse and repeat with rows of back stitch to fill in your patch design.

When you're almost to the end of your thread, poke your needle through to the back of the fabric and pull the thread under the back part of the stitching to tuck in the end. Don't worry if it looks messy - no one's gonna see the back anyway.

This next step is fully optional, but I think it makes the patch design really pop. Once your patch is filled in, you can use black embroidery floss to outline your design (or whatever colour you want to outline with - it's your patch, do what you want). I use the full thread (6 strands, not split) of embroidery floss to make a thicker outline.

I use the same back stitch I used to fill the piece to make an outline that adds some separation and detail. You could use most any 'outlining' stitch for this, but I just use back stitch because it's just easier for me to do.

Once you're finished embroidering your patch, it's time to cut it out!

Make sure to leave a little border around the edge to use for sewing your patch on your jacket/bag/blanket/whatever, and be careful not to accidentally cut through the stitches on the back of the patch.

If you have a sturdy enough fabric that isn't going to fray, you can just leave it like this. If not, I recommend using a whip stitch/satin stitch to seal in the exposed edges (I find that splitting your embroidery floss into 3-strand threads works best for this).

And then you're done! At this point you can put on iron-on backing if you want, or just sew it on whatever you wanna put it on. Making patches this way does take a long time, but I feel that the results are worth it.

Thanks for reading this tutorial! I hope it was helpful. If anyone makes patches using this method, I'd love to see them! 😁

[rowietinkers]

Every time I see something that's like "would you rather go back to <younger age>" I'm like you could not pay me to go back to <younger age>. Don't care which one. My life may not have gotten objectively better every single year in a linear fashion but dear GOD it is better to be 30 than 20 and it was better to be 20 than 10. My sister is always like "I miss being a kid and being carefree and not having to worry about anything" and I'm like ????? because I remember childhood as a very difficult time when I was feeling a lot of difficult things that I couldn't communicate to anyone. At least now I have the ability to understand and articulate it and I get better at doing that every year which is nice. I think this is the key thing: I've always been full of bad feelings but now I know more words about it, which helps a little.

[rowietinkers]

Many things are best maintained thru use,

My tools are free of rust and all debris;

If a hammer's head does wobble loose,

I catch the flaw before it catches me.

[rowietinkers]

I wrote this before last year's near death experience, before that last tiny shred of my upbringing's faith fell away, it's interesting to me to see that such thoughts were there before that trauma. I was always headed towards witchery, that time may have just hastened my journey.

There's a room

in my house

where occasionally, the sun

flickers

I know it's just a bird

flying over the skylight

but to only embrace the logic

of the situation, kills the magic

The only light in that room

an old striplight, broken

hanging at an angle

the only room I see the flicker in

a broken light paired to a flicker of

the sun, two so different yet

in their own ways they speak alike

Our world hides magic

in every corner, only asking

that your logic mind sits back

and the magic mind lean forward

creating fantastical thoughts

Magic is mystery hiding in plain sight

even if you know the logic

give yourself those morsels

let your brain seek the magic

create and wonder and wander

immersed in the beauty of our world.

[rowietinkers]

my favorite thing about people recommending Terry Prachett to me is they go "oh check out these books of his!" and you think, oh huh that sounds like a seperate series!

no it discworld, its always discworld

and everyone always suggest somewhere different to start except for the BEGINNING

theres a million discworld books and so many different series within the series from the knowledge i have

how on earth do you start reading these, it seems like you just have to get lucky as a child and pick up the first book with no preconceived notions and just keep going

do you skip some, do you read them in a different order, do you have to read all of them?? how do you read these books

someone give me a specific order i have no idea where to start

and i thought trying to figure out what order to watch the star wars movies in was hard

[rowietinkers]

Crafter's Sonnet, 8 Oct '23

I've bled before and doubtless will again

I keep my tools with sharp and shining blade

And sure, I slip up every now and then

But then I look at projects I have made

Shavings, sawdust, oil, blood and sweat

Bringing forth a new thing from the old

I don't bemoan the wounds that I may get

It's worth it when I have a tool to hold

And when the day and project both are done

It absolutely warms my heart to give

The item that I made unto someone

The joy and love they share, it makes me live

And so, altho my tools may make me bleed

To share my art fulfills a greater need.

[rowietinkers]

Once my thumb's healed, these two big hammers is gonna get cherrywood handles, along with the axe that bit me

Gonna carve her a new handle using her

I got a new ballpeen hammer and made an elm handle for it ^~^ here it is beside my other two ballpeens, the shaping I gave it works perfectly for my style of working 💕

[rowietinkers]

Two walking sticks I've made recently; on the left for an old friend is a stick made from commercial American white oak with local (Aotearoa) grown European ash for the handle, the shank was vinegarooned and the handle flamed to give it such colour. It has a Celtic braid pattern pokerworked into it.

On the right was a commission for a new friend, made from commercial walnut and oak veneer for the turned handle, and locally sourced cherry for the shank. A man I knew as Uncle Andrew, who was I think my grandmother's brother in law, rang my mum up when a tree blew down on his property, as he knew I'm keen for good wood. He's since passed on, but I remember him every time I work that timber.

Both were inspired & designed by looking at my stockpile of wands, my drawing skills aren't amazing but with photo proof I can execute an idea it helps people feel more confident about my skills.

The oak cane has a matching wand from hickory, which I shall post tomorrow (if I remember).

[rowietinkers]

Gotta love wondering whether I sharpened my new axe enough and then on the first instance of it gently touching timber the wood parts like butter n so does my thumb

[rowietinkers]

2,000 year old Olive tree in Greece 

[rowietinkers]

The first blossom of spring, on the ornamental cherry plum tree by my door

Today's been a rollercoaster, health scare reminiscent of last year's terror which turned out to be nothing, been freezing sleet n rain, but also the first of these gorgeous wee marshmallows appearing for me to greet as I exist my room, and I got some more woodwork done

Life is the most mixed of bags, I take my lumps as I must and embrace the beauties as I can

[rowietinkers]

i am being so nosey rn but i am so intrigued by your wood crafty things, what does your process look like? and got anything cool you’d be down to show off?

also what’s your tattoo of?

+ i hope you’re having a good day/night ◡̈

I welcome noseyness, it's fine 💖

Tattoos I've got like a dozen so far

Makers mark and botanical design with trees n plants relevant to my life; Celtic cross (this is gonna become a shield with queer flags), Ankh-Morpork symbol from Discworld and a combo of the trans enby and peace symbols; B natural on my outer wrist, and on my inner left arm is crossed mallet n chisel, abutilon flower my mum drew, cauldron of soup, and a heart shaped globe for the love of frens round the world 💖

I have also a queer chevron on my bicep, a pansy on my ankle and the symbol Galadriel put on the box for Sam on my thumb

My woodwork process is basically this: an idea strikes, I see what I can do to execute it, I sand it well to hide the mistakes :P

Current project is a walking stick commish which someone asked for upon seeing other walking sticks I'd made, so I sent them pics of wands I've carved to show that I can in fact do certain shapes and that my subpar drawing skills don't match what I can do in timber

This is the piece of cherry I'm currently working down; a couple years ago a relative called and said he had a cherry tree blown down, knew I had a chainsaw and a passion for timber so would I like to be the one to cut it up? So of course I did, cutting the pieces into the absolute maximum that I could carry and load into the van

Fast forward to now, that relly passed on some months back but I honour his memory by working the timber he gifted me cos it's dry now, I used axe n hammer to split off a segment which has gorgeous grain lines, chatoyancy, some solidified red resin, and it's gonna look lovely once it's finished up 💖

Handle of the walking stick is gonna be lathe turned, inspired by one of my wands, and glued up from a block of walnut with some veneer highlight stripes to make it pop

Wands is a great way to show what I can make, and I've got a lot in stock so I can rephoto them to show details n such

The middle wand in that last pic is turned tulipwood and inspired the handle design for the walking stick ^~^

And here's a close pic of the cherry grain shining in the sunlight 💖 I have many pics of many things but I don't wanna ramble on too long lol

Hope you're having a decent day of it too ^~^

[rowietinkers]

Love that they put “a sense of impending doom” as one of the symptoms of a heart attack, like girl, that’s just how it is to be alive these days, you’re gonna have to be more specific

[rowietinkers]

Pin oak, red kakabeak, and a small flower on a frosty morning ❄️

[rowietinkers]

A rose got trapped in my partner's window

Sitting on the armchair below there's the faint perfume of the flower

[rowietinkers]

After the rather rude hiatus imposed by my lungs, I've finally finished this cutting board to go with the soup stirrer!

Both spoon and board are recycled heart rimu (native NZ timber), and I used my carving knifes to give the board the adzed texture for the bevels 💕

[rowietinkers]

Finished carving my first spoon with my new spoon knife!

It's beech, along with this pair which I made a while back by split-turning them on the lathe then carving with other tools; I used synthetic steelwool 0000 to repolish the old ones and they all came out looking great ^~^ also I seem to have a thing for spirals 🌀

My spoon knife, a lefty scoop knife from Beaver Craft tools ^~^