After 30 years of chasing perfect stitches, Stephen Wilson is roughing them up on purpose. In this guide, he explains how to make brand-new machine embroidery look like a patch from the 1940s–70s. He covers hand-placed digitizing with irregular fills and rough satin edges, vintage fabric, low-sheen cotton thread like Gunold Cotty (with a 25% density reduction), and distressing with sandpaper, wire brushes, and a Dremel. The post pairs with the Vintage Patches and Vintage Coastal Patches collections.
