Saturday 16 May 2015

When I asked what he wanted for his birthday....

.... curiously he didn't answer "cross stitch".

But that's what he got!


Gift giving time is always tricky with this bloke. Ask him what he wants and he'll usually answer "world peace" or something equally Miss Universe worthy. The trick is to give him exactly what he really wanted but didn't yet realise he wanted!

....And what child of the 70's could resist a Galactica Space Invaders cross-stitched T-shirt?!


This idea came about when I was browsing Japanese Amazon for embroidery magazines after making this little shirt. I came across a book of cross stitch patterns for Pacman and other video games, but they were much more of the hand held console era, and when I showed them to Flipper he simply said "I'd prefer Galactica"

With those few words I had my mission.


Searching for ready made cross stitch patterns didn't yield any results. So, I grabbed a bit of graph paper, sat out on the back verandah in the sunshine with a sick kid who was home from daycare for the day and got drawing.

I downloaded an image off the 'net and created my own cross stitch pattern. There are 4 main variants of the enemy fleet and the active shooter is a bit different to the reserve fighters. In total there are 33 spaceships, a few bullets and a little Game Over tag on the back. Each ship is about 1 hour's work for me, so starting this a week out from his birthday meant that every spare minute and many late evenings were spent stitching!

 
Thankfully, my parents, who are evidently blog readers and pay attention, had bought me a thimble for my birthday (along with an autographed, no less, copy of Thimbles of Australia). My birthday is just a few days before Flipper's, so my last night of cross stitching was done with a happily thimble protected finger! (and the Giro d'Italia had started so I got to see Gerro take the first pink jersey while sewing until 2am))

After the birthday rolled around, and I'd caught up on some sleep, I decided to digitise my first ever cross stitch pattern and make it freely available to any other insane soul who feels the need for sharing some Free Downloadable Galactica Space Invaders Cross Stitch Pattern love!



The pattern is positioned to fit on an A4 page and still be legible, but the shooters and the Game Over tag should be repositioned from where they are on the page. I used DMC 14ct/inch soluble canvas and the finished fleet ends up about 24cm x13cm.


Details:
Pattern: Liesl & Co Metro t-shirt for men
Size XL - note to self: add about 2cm to sleeve length
Fabric: Stable cotton interlock with rayon jersey for neckband (due to lack of black ribbing)
Extras: Cross stitch pattern as above using DMC25 embroidery thread colour 169 - probably a bit thick and some of the detail is lost. Topstitching type thread may be better

27 comments:

  1. You are one amazing wife, your husband looks very cool in his shirt and now get ready for the orders.

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    1. :) thanks Sharon, but at my hourly rate I figure that's a $1600 t-shirt! Giving the pattern for free so I never need do it again!

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  2. Awesome, the best gift her never knew he wanted he will ever get!

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    1. Exactly! Problem is he has a birthday every year. It's getting tougher and tougher!...

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  3. You are so creative....ALL. THE. TIME!!! Who would have thought a little (ummm....LOT OF) handwork could be incorporated seamlessly into this sort of attire?!?!? FANTASTIC!!

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    1. {blushing} well thank you! Not all the time mind you, but I have been on a bit of a roll with a few overworked, overambitious projects lately. It's fun so why not?!

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  4. This is so cool - I can't believe you did all that cross-stitching. A true labor of love. The Game Over tag is my favorite part.

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    1. Thanks Masha. I really liked the Game Over tag too and that was the only surprise part. There's no way I could do all this late night stitching and have kept it secret, so one little surprise was necessary.

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  5. I understand his blog name now! Of course! Well done for quite a customized birthday gift.

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    1. :) He was the one who came up with my pseudonym, so when it became unavoidable not to mention him on the blog I suggested Flipper, pointing out that it was very flattering. If only it were true that "no one but he is faster than me".

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  6. I am seriously impressed! That tshirt fit looks perfect. And you guys are both funny!? Your kids are destined to have the best sense of humor between genetics and environment. ;) And as a child of the 80s, I missed the pop culture references but Dan filled me in. :P

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    1. The challenge is in teaching the kids to understand droll irony. Once you've worked out what the very obscure, minimally worded answer was, it's inevitably quite amusing. It will take me a lifetime or more to fully understand this husband of mine!
      We need to find an IT museum where all those Commodore 64s and Microbees and Ataris ended up and take you youngsters for a look! :)

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  7. So now you put the Flipper song in my head! Such an amazing shirt.

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    1. Sorry Janice. How about Skippy, or Gilligan's Island just for a change of ear worm!
      I'm pretty proud of this shirt, so thanks!

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  8. Oh my goodness, this is just too awesome. My husband is a video game developer child of the 70's, and is also impossible to come up with gifts for... your cross-stitch pattern may come in handy at some point:) Nice job!

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    1. Wow thanks! I'd love it if another sewer married to a computer nerd found this useful! Niche sewing huh?!

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  9. Magnificent work, Shelley - who would have thought that cross-stitch could be so masculine :) The top looks seriously amazing.

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    1. Thanks Marisa! I'd enjoyed doing the flowers on my valentine exchange gift and of course early computer graphics are perfect for cross stitch as there are so few pixels per image. ...and someone led me to mrxstitch on instagram. He's amazing!

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  10. Absolutely fabulous! World peace and game over!

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    1. :) thanks Jenya! Perhaps next year I'll do one that says "I asked my wife to solve world conflict but instead I got this lousy cross stitched t-shirt"

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  11. Outstanding. Just outstanding. What a fantastic gift!

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    1. Cheers Inder. He's hard to impress so of course I get a bit competitive and try harder each year.

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  12. Awesome! Such a lot of work in this. You have been a busy girl. Hope he loves it as much as we all do!

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    1. Thanks. Now that I have a handle on my cross stitch speed (about an hour per square inch) I'll know what I'm in for if I ever start something like this again!

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  13. P.S- I had a chuckle at the Flipper thing :D

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  14. This shirt is all kinds of awesome! I'm pinning this as my husband is a total space invaders geek. Thanks for sharing!

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  15. Thanks so much for sharing this with all of us, Shelley! I hope to do this on a T for my very very particular grandson. Will take notes about the soluble grid stuff. Nirmala

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