Maker Spotlight: Stitches Lovers Shop

Stitches Lovers Shop is one of the Ukrainian cross stitch designers I’ve started following since the Russian invasion, and she has a lot of great designs that are related to the current struggle and just lots of great designs in general.

She has been having problems with people trying to steal her shop and it was even shut down earlier this week, so if you don’t see it when you click over or it looks weird try again later or buy direct from her website instead of from her Etsy shop.

She reported on Instagram that she had evacuated and was in a refugee camp in the Czech Republic but her hometown was being bombed and many family members were still in the country.

She has a Stand with Ukraine design (as well as a saltier one about a certain Russian warship). On both designs she indicates that sales will go to help people in need in Ukraine.

I also love this Ukrainian countryside design worked in the shape of the country. It’s a lovely reminder of the beauty of Ukraine and its people that will still be there once all of this is over.

[Photo: Stitches Lovers Shop.]

Looking for more Sunflower patterns? Check these out on Etsy. and these on the DMC website.

Next Pattern:

Stitch a Retro Sampler with Badass 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]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?