Dye Yourself Deeply, Shakespeare

What I'm referencing:

Here's the patterns, in both color and symbol form. I made mine on 14-ct Aida and they came out to be about 2.5" square. Tag me if you end up making one; I'd love to see it!!

I won't explain the process of cross-stitching & back-stitching (the cross-stitch community on Reddit has lots of tutorials if you want to learn!), but patches are harder to find resources on, so this is how I make mine:

1. Turn over your cross-stitch and iron on a large square of iron-on interfacing. I use Heat n' Bond, but any kind will do. The square should be larger than the back of your piece by at least 1/2 an inch / 1 cm-- you want a border! I've never had issues with the adhesive "going through" the holes on the Aida as I do this, but use an extra pressing cloth if you're worried. (This step isn't 100% necessary, especially if you're going to sew on your patch, but I find it makes things more stable when you finish the edge.)

2. Once it's cooled, remove the paper backing from the interfacing and cut out your cross-stitch with a 2-3 square border. Sharp angles will be a pain in the ass later, so try to round them off if possible. It should look something like Mothman here:

3. Using 2-3 strands of embroidery floss and a standard needle (not a tapestry one), start "looping" around the plain fabric border to finish the edge. You want to insert your needle RIGHT up against the cross-stitch. Don't follow the holes of the Aida as you normally would; just punch through close to your last loop. You don't want to pull the loops so tight that the edge is warping, either; only make them tight enough to stay in place.

I also never tie off my thread as I do this; hang on to the first tail until you have enough loops that it's secure, then when you run out of thread, go back and use your needle to tuck the tails underneath the finished loops. Trim the excess if it's too long afterward

This is one of the badges in progress, and a picture of the needle mid-loop on another WIP:

Like I said, sharp corners are a pain in the ass. I often have to insert loops at the same spot and let them bunch around each other to make them look nice. If you're doing these badges as your first patches, do the attorney's badge first; circles are way easier!

4. Attach the patch! You can follow the instructions on your iron-on adhesive, but I have trust issues with mine (and cross-stitch is thicker than standard fabric) so I usually hand-sew mine on with standard thread. Here's the attorney's badges with the pink moth from before:

And lastly, I'm using this as my free space for @aceattorneybingo. If we're being super technical, the digital patterns are my fill (since I made those for the event), not the patches themselves (which were finished. erm. a few months ago). I haven't shared either of them anywhere before, though, and you cannot say my hours-long battle with my clunky pattern software wasn't a labor of love.

Here are the patterns, in 3 different forms. Tag or link back to me if you make one yourself; I'd love to see it!

There's some back-stitching, half-stitches, and dreadful French knots... adjust as you need. It fits well in a 6 inch hoop :-)

Additionally, this fills my "Almost Christmas" prompt for @aceattorneybingo... we're going to ignore the fact that I haven't had time to do any others since last time. Mermaids soon, hopefully!