Black History and Juneteeth Cross Stitch Patterns

Juneteenth is the celebration of the news that enslaved people had been freed finally reached the state of Texas on June 19, 1865. The day is the newest national holiday in the United States, and is celebrated as a second Independence Day.

I was looking around for Juneteenth cross stitch patterns, and I actually didn’t find that much specific to Juneteenth, so if you know of any sources please let me know!

I did find this Sweet Land of Liberty cross stitch design from Siren Stitchworks on Etsy. The design, which is based on motifs from 19th century and includes the date June 19, 1865, is 79 by 119 stitches. This would be lovely on an off-white or tea-dyed fabric to add a little more rustic flair.

Snail Fishes Stitches is an Etsy seller but they have also shared a few free patterns on Pinterest, including two versions of a pattern inspired by the Juneteenth flag. The flag features a star inside a starburst with an arching horizon line in blue and red behind it. The full flag version is 21 by 13 stitches or a little less than 1 by 1.5 inches on 14 count fabric. It uses five colors. The other version is circular, and 43 by 43 stitches or a little more than 3 inches around and uses four colors. (For both of these, click on the link, then click view picture and it will take you to a larger chart that includes the color details and more pattern information.)

Mamida Pattern on Etsy has a great collection of Black history and Africa inspired patterns, and their Juneteenth design is a lot of fun, with a raised fist and the colors of the Ethiopian flag (which is often used in Pan African symbology because Ethiopia was never colonized by a foreign power) in the lenses of sunglasses. It measures 111 by 42 stitches and uses four colors. on 14 count fabric it will come out to about 7.9 by 3 inches.

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Fourth of July Cross Stitch Patterns

A while back I made a little rainbow cross stitch pattern and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it, so I turned it into a patch. My idea was that it could be used on a jacket or backpack, or you could add a pin to the back and wear it temporarily on a shirt or elsewhere.

But what if you want to make your design more permanent? Is it possible to turn a piece of cross stitch into an iron-on design?

It turns out yes, it is, and Sirious Stitches has done it so I didn’t have to try to figure it out on my own.

The way they did it was by using HeatnBond, an iron-on adhesive that attaches fabrics without sewing. There was still sewing involved to finish the edges of the cross stitch fabric and make it look like a purchased patch. The post shows how to do this by hand or with your sewing machine. (I just did blanket stitch edging on mine, which doesn’t look like a “real” patch but is also a lot faster.)

Once you have the patch prepared it’s a pretty easy matter of using the fusible adhesive to the back of the patch so you can then iron it onto whatever jacket, pair of jeans, bag or whatever else you might want to add it to.

I guess I’m a little paranoid about the washability of cross stitch projects, though you could hand wash anything with an iron-on cross stitch patch as you might need to with a purchased iron-on patch, anyway. But this does look really cool and is a great option if you know you want to permanently add a cross stitch patch to a garment of bag.

Get the full tutorial over at Sirious Stitches. Would you add an iron-on cross stitch patch to something? I’d love to hear what you would use this technique for!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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