#how to

[asmallorthodoxblog]

[thoughtportal]

Meet yourself where you're at

{source}

[thecassafrasstree]

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! 😁

[wombrion]

she sucks at preening

[dandelionsresilience]

Trump’s big beautiful bill passed….how are federal courts and or we are supposed to stop him now?

the Big Stupid Bill has passed the House (by only one vote), but a bill has to pass both the House and the Senate before it can become law. and if the Senate makes changes to the bill, which they currently are doing, it goes back to the House again. so the biggest thing you can do right now is still call your representatives and call your senators.

GovTrack.us can help you contact your legislators, and 5calls.org provides scripts you can use to talk about various aspects of the bill

additionally, while none of the contents of the bill are good for the American people, none of it dooms us either. the closest it gets to that imo is with the REINS Act, which would allow Congress to overrule or delay agency regulation and has passed the House several times in the past only to be shot down by the Senate - so call your senators.

(disclaimer: I’m not super thoroughly informed on every aspect of the 1000-page bill, so I could be missing something scarier, but the point still stands)

[angerieque]

How to: Become a better version of yourself.

Hi angels! Today, we'll be covering the topic of becoming that vision of ourselves, the best ever. Let's dive right in!

Follow accounts that inspire: Especially people who seem so into what they're doing, not just being "influencers". When scrolling, don't follow a person just because you liked one video of them. Instead, go to their account, check their posts and if they're relatable to any of your goals, follow them! Be mindful.

Vision Boards!: Personally, I make one for each month. They mainly consist of academic, health goals, and quotes (for me). I love to check them whenever I'm feeling unmotivated and after each month, I check them once again to see what I achieved and what I could have done better.

Write down your goals: Will you forget about it? Well, maybe. Is it worth it though? Definitely. You'll have your own guide to refer to once you remember it exists. Categorize your goals, make them seasonal, whatever you feel is best for you.

Affirmations: Each morning, I tell myself that I'm beautiful, smart and worth a million. You have to believe it. We always tell others these words that we forget we need to hear them, too.

Baby steps: Workout at home if you can't afford a gym membership until you can, for example. Find an alternative for anything you want to do but can't afford/isn't available. Don't just give up because you don't have money, that's an excuse.

Have a well-structured routine: Build your own routine and write it down. Think of what you're doing wrong and work on it by replacing it with another healthy habit.

Think of who you'll be if you start now: Visualize your life once you're "that" person you've been dreaming of. How will that feel? How will you look, talk, and walk like? And what kind of life do you prefer?

Love yourself enough: The amount of self-respect you've got to have in order to do all this for yourself is insane. You have to believe that you deserve a better life, a healthy and functioning body, a nice degree. Think of how people will perceive you, but most importantly think of how YOU will perceive yourself.

Alright that's it for now babes! Hope you have a good night or morning. Much love, angel.

[vergess]

I'll do that at some point and @ you then!

For the moment, the big thing to remember is that learning a specific style is very similar to learning to draw in the first place:

You have to do studies.

There's simply no two ways about it! I would recommend browsing AI galleries like this one and looking for pieces you feel are Especially AI Looking to do brief studies of.

If you've never done a study on purpose before, it's just when you do your best to re-create a specific image, such as a photo or model, focusing on one aspect of it, such as lighting-on-fabric. This is a great tutorial about how to do it on purpose rather than by accident as you practice.

So, for AI styling, you might do a 20 minute study of "the way hair and fabric are drawn with the same lighting" or "skin having the same glossy texture as objects."

Straight AI outputs with no post-processing work done have a few other "style" indicators that you could learn, such as:

Using the same amount of highlighting and shadow for everything in the image rather than changing lighting based on relationship to source and reflectiveness of material

Asymmetry of accessories, such as buttons on one side and ties on the other

Multiple poses for limbs and hair attached to the same torso and head

Body parts repeating to fill a space

Blending and smearing rigid repeating patterns (eg teeth smearing into lips, books smearing into shelves, stripes wobbling irregularly)

i want to learn how to draw in a way that looks like ai art. i want every one of my posts to be accused of being ai because the hair looks a little weird and the clothes don’t quite make sense

[thatsbelievable]

[michaeladrianwright]

A knight and friends.

[dancy-nrew]

People say “done is better than perfect” but what do they mean by that? How exactly do you make something start to finish but not very well? Here’s a zine about making something badly because that’s the only way you can do it right now.

[blumineck]

How to make an archery target using recycled materials!

I’m still on the injury recovery bandwagon, but GOOD NEWS: there’s a massive stock of archery references available on my Patreon so you don’t have to miss out on watching me do cool stuff!

Edit: I found the spelling error, thanks everyone for being snarky about it 😉

[fullcravings]

How to Make French Toast Recipe

[kropotkindersurprise]

[disease]

How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found is a how-to book by Doug Richmond, originally released in 1985.