Crochet Stickers? Stick-On Patches? What Are These?!

UPDATE 1/26/23: These were an absolute bust! I love them and ended up with two on my old backpack. I gave the others away as free surprises with other orders. Womp womp!

If you stumbled across this post and you want one, you're welcome to request I make one. I'm not sure I have any of the adhesive backing left. I handsewed mine onto my backpack like they were patches. 

Check out my Etsy to see what I have available now! Check my Ravelry for patterns! I also have a Ko-Fi!

Wtf Are Crochet Stickers?!

Well, a lot of people make embroidered patches. I've accepted the fact that I don't find sewing particularly enjoyable in any form. I do, on the other hand, find crocheting to be quite enjoyable. I'm sure someone else out there in the world has made crochet patches before. I know everyone makes crochet appliqués. I'm not sure if anyone has given them adhesive backing to make application effortless for the laziest of humans.

Again, I don't find sewing very enjoyable. It's a necessary evil and a means to an end in my book. Then I asked myself, "Self, what is the absolute easiest way to attach a thing to another thing that involves no sewing whatsoever?"

After a mere moment of thought, I responded to my inquiry with, "Adhesive, duh."

So I poked around the mighty Interwebs and found some double-sided, peel-off fabric adhesive sheets. Thus crochet stickers were born. I guess they could also be called stick-on crochet patches...yarn patches...yarn stickers. Whatever.

I like a lot of things and I like to make things based on things I like. So far, all of the stickers are things I like, but I can make other things if other people want other things. I made myself the N7 logo (with a pink accent and pink border) from Mass Effect a while back. It adorns my decades-old Jansport backpack. I machine-stitched it on over the old logo prior to my adhesive epiphany.

Once upon a time I also had a grand idea to cover my entire shoulder bag with these to make it look like a patchwork crochet bag instead of a $20 Target bag. If/when I get around to this I'll post some pictures.

Each sticker is made of super fine yarn and I used either a size 1 hook or size 5. Size 5 came into play with any designs that were more than 25 or so stitches across because I didn't want these to be ginormous.

About The Adhesive Backing

The adhesive backing is Aleene's Fabric Fusion. It's made for fabric so it's hardcore as far as adhesives go and will also stick to other surfaces if you wanted to put one of these on a notebook or something. The only caveat is that it doesn't stick so well to super stretchy, synthetic materials like nylon and spandex. Don't put one of these on your leotard. The Internet says not to put it on sweatpants either. I recommend these for bags and backpacks and although the adhesive should hold through the washing machine, the designs themselves are made partially of wool, so they can't be machine washed.

Small Stickers

The smallest of the small stickers is the Mass Effect Omega logo. Who didn't love Aria T'Loak and her couch? It measures in at 2" x 3". Also in the small category is the Borderlands Vaulthunter logo (in three color combos), Mass Effect N7 and Cerberus, along with the Eye of the Crimson King from the Dark Tower series, and the Doctor Who logo. I think I might be able to get the Doctor Who logo a little smaller if I try hard. I can tweak the sizes of most designs a little bit in both the larger and smaller directions.

Medium Stickers

Currently in the medium category is a lot of Dragon Age heraldry and some Destiny logos. I made charts for a lot more Dragon Age heraldry than I actually made. I don't keep a lot of this size yarn on hand and I had limited colors (which is also why Dead Orbit is missing from the Destiny designs too). There are some things I simply wanted to be in accurate colors. Apparently the Antivan Crows was not one such thing as I was compelled to make it in pink.

Anywho, the smallest of the medium-sized patches is the Kirkwall sigil at 3" x 4". Future War Cult is obviously the widest at 5". I'm just giving you these numbers for a frames of reference while looking at these things. As you can see with your eyeballs, I've also made the Circle of Magi, Qunari and Antivan Crows heraldry from Dragon Age then I whipped up FWC and New Monarchy from Destiny. Once more, there is some flexibility in the sizes if you want a custom one of these.

Large Stickers

The largest of the stickers have a little less variation possibilities as far as sizes go. The only ones I think I can make smaller are the Horde emblem from WoW and the Legion of the Dead from Dragon Age. The Hylian Royal Crest and Seekers of Truth cannot get smaller. The blue Hylian crest is actually slightly larger than the red one because I gave it a bit more of a border...for experimental purposes?

The Hylian Royal Crest is 5" across like the FWC logo, but I made it with a size 5 hook, which is smaller, so it's more stitches and actually takes a bit longer. I won't bore you with too many of these technical details. Just trust that I thought long and hard about these three categories since I based pricing on size.

The Future And Customization Prospects

I have a few other Doctor-themed ideas bouncing around thanks to some dialogue on Facebook. If it turns out that people like these then I'll happily make more. The smallest ones don't take long at all and I can also do monograms in fancy script or, you know, the missing logos like poor, neglected Dead Orbit. I can also make these from acrylic yarn so they can be put on washable items if there's interest. Right now though, my colors are limited and I want to use what I've got.

Personally, I don't understand the appeal of monograms. They remind me of having to put my initials on my Lisa Frank lunchbox in kindergarten so the other kid with the same lunchbox wouldn't get confused and eat my banana and mayonnaise sandwich on accident. I'm not compelled to have my initials on things as an adult, but I know other people are.


How To Buy One

Venture over to Etsy and you should be able to figure it out. This is the first time I've listed physical items as more than one and the first time I've used the variation function, so I hope it works like I think it works? If there's a particular logo you want that I haven't made then just ask. I seriously might have the pattern made already, especially if it happens to be Dragon Age heraldry. Hint hint. If you know me, you know I've been on a helluva DA kick lately. I'm a huge fan of extremely convoluted fantasy worlds and Thedas is nothing if not convoluted.