moth-ghoul

[moth-ghoul]

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! 😁

[moth-ghoul]

every time i see trad gender roles people being weird about fibercraft i wanna tell them

-medieval and early modern knitting guilds were full of men learning and perfecting fancy knitting techniques to impress rich clients

-in cold, wet climates like the scottish highlands knitting was done by the whole family, in fact it was the perfect activity to do while a man was out on a fishing boat or in the pasture with his sheep and cattle

-men who were away from women for a long time had to know how to knit and sew at least well enough to mend their own clothes. soldiers knitted. sailors knitted. cowboys and frontiersmen knitted. vikings probably knitted (actually they would have been doing a kind of proto knitting called nalbinding, but that's beside the point). all those guys the far right love to treat as ultra masculine heroes were sitting around their barracks and campfires at night darning their socks and knitting themselves little hats

[moth-ghoul]

なな💖🖤💖🖤

[moth-ghoul]

Actually I'll never forgive Punk Rave and Killstar and fast fashion brands for tricking people into thinking that being goth or punk or emo is expensive. Babygirl the only goth brand names you need to know are Rit, Good Will, Etsy, and Studs and Spikes, we used to shove safety pins through our ears and then they started selling earrings that look like safety pins for 15.99. We used to dye thrifted wedding dresses black and they started selling gothic gowns for 300 bucks. We used to put studs on boots we found in the back of the good will and they started making Demonias. DIY or die wasn't perfect it can be exclusionary to disabled people but whatever the fuck we've got going on right now is so much worse. It's not any more inclusive to the disabled and it is exclusionary to the people who made punk, to the people who made goth, to the people who made emo. If you've got the funds and you don't want to do diy pay someone else to do it for you but please let it be a small artist or a friend not some guy in a suit who's made it his business to gentrify punk. You can turn flats into platforms with flipflops, hotglue and gumption don't let anyone tell you different.

#i like some stuff from those stores like killstar #and one day i might get something from them or ask for something as a gift #but they do not at all define punk or goth for me #like they're neat but #killstar patch pants do not a punk make #also side comment FUCK DOLLSKILL they're all of what was said here and racist and all sorts of shitty on top #anyways #my favorite things about punk and goth are the diy aspects #i love being able to say i made something myself #i love the creating of my own stuff and i love wearing the product at the end #my favorite punk/goth style things that i own are diyed or thrifted or something like that #killstar can't give you the basics of goth and punk as it is in the wild #only you can do that

[moth-ghoul]

baby star adopted by a family of fluffy clouds ....

[moth-ghoul]

Cyber goth dress + my favourite way to make patches

I thrifted this dress a couple of weeks ago for £1. I believe it started life as some sort of costume, possibly a sexy firefighter, but the fabric is really good quality cotton, and I thought it had some cybergoth potential with the yellow and reflective bits. I also really like the metal fastenings.

I already had a high-viz coat in my wardrobe from when I used to go bicycling more often, so I was able to steal more reflective bits from that. Not yet sure what I'll do with them, probably cut interesting shapes and glue or sew them on. Photos with and without flash.

And then yesterday I got a half meter of cotton fabric for £1 which is an almost exact colour match, so I can make some stencilled patches.

I already had fabric paint at home, so this entire outfit has only cost me £2! Cybergoth clothing is usually super expensive.

There are lots of tutorials for making stencilled patches on YouTube, (@rattusrattus3 has some excellent ones) but I lack patience and don't like cutting out intricate pieces, especially for lettering, so I had the idea to use alphabet stickers. You can pick these up really cheap from your local pound shop or dollar store depending on where you're from. I think mine were 40p a packet.

Stick them to your fabric, use fabric paint and a sponge, then when you peel the stickers off you'll have the words in relief. You can go thicker than I have here to make the surrounding area totally opaque, but I like the edges being messy and faded out. These are both song titles from cyber/industrial bands that I like.

Here are some other examples that I've done in the past. These were all done with pound shop spray paint which isn't ideal for fabric, but it's cheap! You'll also get more of the original fabric colour showing through with this kind of paint, which is nice.

If you're using black fabric, gold or silver paint will generally work better than white. These are all Devin Townsend song lyrics.

The only negative to this method for some people may be that the letters will be very uniform, but I like that. And if you want to you can space them irregularly to break things up a bit. Or you might be able to find more interestingly shaped alphabet stickers than I did!

#patches #diy #punk #punk patches #diy patches

[moth-ghoul]

Finally working on my end of year letter / zine / activity book to mail to friends and fam! This is the first time it will be a New Year card instead of a Holiday card... But this marks 4 years in a row making these bad boys!

[moth-ghoul]

(via Are Artist-Produced Zines the Antidote to Social Media?)

[moth-ghoul]

having feelings, and more on deck!

i think this zine turns out fine if you print it in black and white, that's what i intend to do i just forgor to turn all the pictures completely black and white

#moth types #moth's zines #moth ghoul #zine #zines #punk zines #diy zines #space #infinitesimal #existentialism #anti nihilism #canva

[moth-ghoul]

Day 3: Prepatation!

i fold my mini-zines after printing them, i like to make my zines digitally cause my handwriting is bad, so i'm not doing that step some ideas i'd like to focus on:

horror/romance story

fanzine for favorite youtuber

instructional zine for painting patches

poem

bits of the stand up routine i'll never finish

recommendation for a book that makes me cry /pos

a piece of media that had so much potential but was bungled so bad by the creators

loveletter zine

tier list or ranking of media that my friends like and i hear about from them but don't know myself

a good day i had

I’m gonna try doing this

#moth ghoul #moth types #zines #zinewrimo #zinewrimo2023 #diy

[moth-ghoul]

Day 2: Make a plan/set your goals for ZineWriMo 2023

Goal: ten zines in this month (approximately one per three days) Plan: fuck around and find out

i'm late again cause school is kicking my ass but i'm gonna catch up this weekend

I’m gonna try doing this

#moth types #moth ghoul #zines #zinewrimo #zinewrimo 2023 #diy

[moth-ghoul]

here's what i've got a day late, it might be formatted weird cause i copied it from my document

fictional story

mystery

horror

romance

and more! quotes you like and what they mean to you recipes, or your favorite foods your favorite media

describe it!

pitch it!

analyze it!

infodump about it! poetry and/or prose art! perhaps about any of the other prompts! your favorite celebrity/youtuber/whatever

why you like them

how long you've been watching them a story you are writing (or trying to write) a how-to instructional zine a playlist a tier-list or ranking non fiction story

what you did yesterday

anecdotes from your life

family history

some interesting historical event seasonal/holiday zine zine to gift to someone you love (or hate, i don't know your life) book recommendations

your childhood favorite book

seasonal book recommendations

book that makes you need a good cry

book that makes you laugh

book that makes you feel hopeful

book that does all three??? anti recommendations

worst media you've ever consumed

media that had an amazing concept/characters/worldbuilding that the creators totally bungled

something that is simply not worth the trouble

an adaptation that misses the point of the original comedic zine

jokebook

a funny story (real or fictional)

bits of the standup routine you'll never perform fun facts

I’m gonna try doing this

#moth ghoul #moth types #zines #diy #zine ideas #zine prompts #zinewrimo

[moth-ghoul]

Day 1: Brainstorms and Thought Gardens - Come up with ideas for this month

later i'll reblog this with what i do for today!

I’m gonna try doing this

#moth ghoul #moth types #zines #diy #zinewrimo #diy zines #punk #November

[moth-ghoul]

reblogging for halloween day! hallowed be thy ween :)

hallozine :)

halloween zine! just some of my thoughts

#moth ghoul #moth types #halloween #hallozine

[moth-ghoul]

thats not a “zine” that is an “art book” and you are scaring the hoes (discouraging people from zinemaking by associating it with hefty sleek professionalism instead of extremely diy no resources low cost artistic communication) by mixing up these words

[moth-ghoul]

i make my zines by putting this guy in canva :)

(on canva, you can rotate text by turning the little turning arrow symbol next to your text)

#moth ghoul #moth types #zines #zine #zine template #how to make a zine #zine tutorial #diy #punk #canva

[moth-ghoul]

I’m gonna try doing this

#moth types #moth ghoul #zines #zinewrimo #November #diy zine #diy #punk #zine