Free Tibet Denim Jacket
FINALLY!
Sorry this took so long but I managed to hurt my back and I was so sore I couldn’t even cross stitch! My partner knew there was really something wrong with me when I ignored the stitching.
So here’s my cross stitch contribution to the Free Tibet creativity movement sweeping the globe at the moment (check out the poster art featured on Groundswell). And my contribution to the Free Tibet XStitch Competition.
And here’s the pattern if anyone wants to use it. Click on the image for a pdf pattern with colour guide and cross stitch instructions.
I also promised earlier to give a bit of a tutorial on how to use waste aida fabric to cross stitch directly on to fabric. So here’s a couple of pics to show how I did it.
The first thing you need to do is secure the aida fabric to your chosen fabric. You can either tack the corners with some stitches which you can remove later. Or you can hold the two pieces of fabric together with an embroidery hoop.
I forgot to take a photo while I was still stitching but I used a hoop to secure the aida fabric to the jacket. I’m sure you can use your imagination as to what it would look like.
Once you’ve finished stitching, remove the hoop or stitches and then trim the aida fabric as close to your stitching as possible.
Then you carefully pull all the threads out, starting from the edge.
I also try and cut the aida between letters where there was a bit of room so there was a bit less to pull through.
My advice is to not pull to hard on a thread if it’s really tight, just move on to another section. Sometimes when you’re stitching you can accidentally stitch through the aida so it’s best to leave those threads until the end to deal with. The last thing you want to do is break one of your stitched threads!
In the end it will look like this
Hopefully that’s useful for you readers out there. I reckon it’s a great way to embellish clothes and bags and other things you carry/wear around. Use your imagination, there is a billion things to stitch on if you think about it hard enough!
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11 Responses to “Free Tibet Denim Jacket”
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I love your jacket! Great job! I like that you get to display your statement in public, rather than just hanging on the wall like mine. Although I did get the Tibetan phrase from my entry from a T-shirt I painted years ago, after I learned a few Tibetan phrases from a group of monks that was visiting my town.
And thanks for the tips on cross stitching onto fabric. I can’t wait to try it out!
Great tutorial! I can’t wait to share the link with my readers!
Denise Feltons last blog post..Free cross-stitch charts from Mary Engelbreit
Great job ! Your pattern is really cool. And thanks for the tutorial !
Liliths last blog post..Enfin !
[...] Kakariki of Radical Cross Stitch has posted an excellent tutorial for using aida cloth as waste canvas. You can see how she applied this technique to a denim jacket in this post. [...]
Excellent tutorial!
Thank you for the instructions! Good pattern that gets the message out there…
Carolyn
http://www.stitchopedia.com
an encyclopedia of needlepoint stitches…
That is so beautiful, and I love the photo-tutorial.
I have done this, in the distant past, putting motifs on my kids’ clothing (until they objected… ), but I must have another go on some of my own stuff.
Wow, making something for me, not to go on family, that’ll be a novelty.
anarkaties last blog post..Going S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G!
Magic!
seam like a nice sort of liberal site, e.g. support for aborigines in Australia, but I can\’t get over this support for the nutcase at the head of the so-called Free Tibet movement. The Dalai Lama would love to reinstall a feudal, theocratic state, with 95% of the population enslaved (they had it before 1959). This CIA sponsored lunatic never speaks out against any other human right violations in the whole world. China may not be perfect, but they have done a helluva lot to improve the lives of the Tibetans. Cheers, James
James, have you ever actually been to Tibet or spoken to anyone who lives there?
Clearly not.
I have found when pulling out threads of waste fabric it is helpful to use tweezers so you can grip the threads easier and it doesn’t hurt your fingers as much.
the jacket looks great!
and James if you listened to the Dalai Lama at all you would know that what you said is wrong. He travels the world speaking out against any kind of oppression he happens to focus on Tibet and China because that is personal for him.