Cross Stitch for Women’s History Month

March is celebrated as Women’s History Month, so why not stitch up some great iconic women from history to celebrate?

Debs Cross Stitch has this awesome kit for a women who made history cross stitch project, which features famous women from Cleopatra to Greta Thumberg. It is a Bothy Threads design and has an emphasis on British women, which could be fun for people in other parts of the world to learn about some people they aren’t as familiar with. The kit includes 14 count fabric, thread and needle. The finished project is 33 by 42 cm, or about 13 by 16.5 inches.

If you’re looking for famous women with an Australian twist, Spruce Craft Co. has the pattern for you. Designed by Ellie Ross, this one features the faces of 10 famous women from about the world. It uses 11 colors and measures 71 by 74 stitches, which comes out to 5.1 by 5.3 inches or 12.9 by 13.4 cm on 14 count fabric.

Good Morning Maui has a chibi version of iconic women of history, including Empress Wu, Jane Austen and Harriet Tubman, among others. This one measures 198 by 107 stitches and uses 28 colors. That comes out to 14.3 by 7.8 inches or 36.6 by 19.8 cm, on 14 count fabric.

I also love ten tiny feminists from Anita and Fred, which features the features of some famous women including Frida Kahlo, Lucille Ball and Ada Lovelace. Each design is made to fit in a 3-inch hoop.

Or you can just stitch up a single famous female from history like this Grace Hopper design from CloudsFactory. It features Grace and her computer and measures 65 by 68 stitches. That’s 4.6 by 4.9 inches or 11.8 by 12.3 cm on 14 count fabric. This is just one of their Fabulous Women in History collection, which you can find in the history section on their website.

Speaking of CloudsFactory, last year I also shared their larger piece, Women are the Architects of Society, which is definitely worth mentioning again.

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How to Railroad Your Cross Stitch

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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