do you have any advice for backstitching comic book lettering and making it REALLY OBVIOUS that itโs from a comic book?
Hi! This is an old message, and I apologize for not responding sooner. You might not even need the tip anymore! But Iโve been meaning to put together my comic text patterns f o r e v e r and I had the spoons this week to put pencil to graph paper, fingers to keyboard, and finally plot it all out.
(Iโm not sure if you consider my embroidered comic text to be REALLY OBVIOUS but Iโm assuming you came to my inbox for a reasonโฆ)
Each grid mark (gray dot) represents a hole in the aida cloth, and I use half-spaces often, so I used dots on the lines to hopefully make it easier to visualize the difference between the whole and half stitches.
The numbers above each letter (or punctuation mark) are the aida-space width of the letter. This is needed when you are planning the text block (which will be a separate How-To post)
The letter โIโ (capital only) has serifs (top and bottom horizontal line) only when the โIโ stands alone, otherwise there are no serifs. This is a standard for comic book text. The patterns include the serifs.
The patterns are a guide. If you think a different slope or spacing looks better, go for it.
Floss: I use 3-ply of floss
Spacing: The text is 3 aida-spaces tall, and there is 1 aida-space between letters and 4 aida-spaces between words
Slope: The standard slope for the slants is 1 space vertical (either direction) and 1 over (L to R). Therefore, half spaces are 0.5 vertical and 0.5 over. That said, there are some places where this is adjusted (see โBโ "J" "S" [heh, BJs]).
Whenever possible, I try to align โpostsโ (like the verticals in the โTโ โIโ โLโ โPโ) on the whole space rather than half space. If it ends up on the half space, pull gently so that the ends of the post donโt disappear into the aida.
Floss: I use 3- or 4- ply of floss, depending on how โemphasizedโ the text is in the original, or how much I want to make the text stand out.
Spacing: The text is 4 aida-spaces tall, and there is 1 aida-space between letters and 4 aida-spaces between words.
Slope: The general slope for the long slants (labeled โverticalโ in the photo below) are 2 space vertical and 1 space over. However, there are exceptions, as seen in the โangled sidesโ below.
For some letters that already have an angle in standard text, like the "A" "N" "V" "W," I use an sloped line for the L to R up and a vertical line for the L to R down
Floss: I use 2-ply of floss. You could use 1-ply, but 2-ply helps soften the curves of the letters.
Spacing: The text is 2 aida-spaces tall, and there is 1 aida-space between letters and 3 aida-spaces between words.
Slope: Same as Standard, but itโs all half-spaces instead of whole spaces. Sometimes 0.5 vertical and 1 space over.
The ovals on the B, P, and R are couching stitches. Steps from the photo belowโ Step 1: Stitch the post top to bottom; Step 2: Create a loop by stitching back through the top of the post and into the middle - donโt pull tight; Step 3: Couch by stitching up and over the hoop at the desired location of the hump, then pull gently -before stitching back through the cloth- until the couch stitch holds the hoop to the cloth. Donโt pull too tight or youโll get an angle! Then stitch back through the cloth 0.5 over from the previous stich
You can see all of the types of text on display in this Domestic Steve post!
In short: Donโt wing it. But Iโll make a separate post going over all my steps (hint, itโs math).
