Tutorial: Pine Guard Patch

So... remember when I said there would definitely not be any more patches for a while?

I lied.

After all, what's a TAZ Amnesty cosplay without the all-important Pine Guard patch! It lets everyone know that Aubrey, Duck, and Ned mean business! (And, you know, keeps them from going crazy while they're in Sylvain). I can't complete an Aubrey cosplay without one. And if any of you want to be part of this abomination-fighting society, you can make one too.

Supplies:

• Black felt
• Small embroidery hoop (not technically necessary, but it'll make your life so much easier, trust me)
• Embroidery needle
• Embroidery thread in green, yellow, yellow-orange, orange, red, and dark red
• Small piece of chalk
• Scissors

Instructions:

First, put the felt in the embroidery hoop. Make sure that the entire inside of the hoop is covered in felt: this will keep the fabric taut and let you maintain an even tension with the thread. You can still do this without an embroidery hoop, but it'll be a lot harder to do.

Next, take your chalk and draw a sketch of the patch. For the Pine Guard, this is a pine tree in front of a retro-style gradient. I went with a very geometric, simplified design, but if you have the skills and/or the patience, go ahead and make it more detailed. At this stage, you'll want to make sure that your circles are circular and your lines are straight, or else they'll be crooked in the final product.

All pretty obvious so far, right? Well, if you've never embroidered before, this next one is a step you might've skipped over. Next, you'll want to go over all of your chalk lines with a simple back stitch, in colors that match (or are similar to) the ones you'll use for the fills. It doesn't have to be super pretty, as long as it makes a neat outline. These are the lines you're really going to use to guide your embroidery. 

Then start filling! It's best to use 2-3 strands of the embroidery floss, instead of the whole six-stranded piece: the fill will come out more even. Use the satin stitch to fill in the areas bordered by your backstitched lines, taking care to ensure that each stitch is parallel and runs the full length of the area. I started with the tree first, since it made the most sense to me to work from the inside out.

You don't need to knot each thread as you add it: just leave an inch or two of tail and hold it in place until you've made a few stitches. When you're done with the thread, weave each end into the back of the piece and snip off the excess. And try to orient the direction of the stitches so that no individual stitch is longer than about half an inch. They tend not to lie flat to the fabric if they're too long, ruining all your nice detail work. For this patch, this meant that the tree threads ran horizontally, while the background threads ran vertically. 

When you're finished, you should have a pretty little pine-tree patch!

Remove the embroidery hoop and cut the felt so that there's a small border around the embroidery. This is why we used felt: you can cut as close as you like, and it won't fray. Be careful not to snip the embroidery thread though! Weave in any remaining threads, and your patch is ready to wear! Here's the back of the finished product:

And the (much nicer) front!

And with that, you've now been inducted into the Pine Guard. Who knew it was that easy? Now we just have to find some abominations to fight!