Who Made my Pride Merch? I did! And today I'm going to teach you how you can too.

So there's a little bit of a story around this particular t-shirt, I do burlesque in my free time and last year I couldn't find any pride t-shirts I really loved that were also ethically made. So I decided to make one, I painted Tassel Twirling Queer on the back and temporarily stuck some rainbow tassels on the front. This was very much temporary and didn't last even the whole of a day at Pride Cymru, but I wasn't going to stick these tassels onto the top permanently because they were nice, expensive, and I used them for burlesque.

Fast forward to this year and I've been learning to embroider, and then remembered I had this t shirt and was like... why don't I just embroider the tassels on it? And here we are, I made it! And I'm going to share with you how to make it too. It's quite easy, but does take a while to make (though you can just sit in front of the TV and sew)


You will need:

- T-shirt
- embroidery hoop
- needle
- scissors
- pencil
- tassels (or thread to 
make tassels)
- embroidery thread 
(6 colours for a rainbow)

1. Draw the outline of your pasties in pencil 
Basically you’re drawing two large round nipples on your shirt, add a dot in the centre your your actual tassel. It's easier to do this on to work out where you want them on your body. And means when you're sewing you have nice easy guidelines.
2. Add your tassel to the shirt
By this I mean the little dangly tassel that cstricks out of the tee shirt. if you're making your own I recommend this tutorial. You want to thread the non-tassel end through your needle and take it through your shirt. Tie a knot to secure length and then sew over this a few times to secure in place.

3. Embroider your rainbow!
Or whatever colour you're making your pasties I used 2ply split stitch for this. Starting at the outside with red, and then moving in through the rainbow.I used two rows of  each colour.

How do I split stitch?
Start at the back of your fabric, bring your needle up through your fabric sew a straight stitch (approx 1/4 inch long).Then when you bring your needle up again, do it through the middle of the first stitch, splitting the stitch. Repeat. Now you’re using split stitch! Still confused? This tutorial should help you.

4. Repeat on other side, and you’re done!
Yep, that is it, it's quite easy once you get into it but will take a number of hours to get done (depending on your sewing speed, I am slow).

Then enjoy your t shirt. I would say take pictures of you in the shirt in the wind because that is a lot of chaotic fun! You can also paint on the back like I did, or decorate your shirt in some other way.
If you make this shirt I would LOVE to see it, so tag me on social media, @muccycloud, and you'll get a whole lot of love from me! Happy Pride!
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