You could accuse me of being a little 'nutty', but I designed a quick DIY project for fellow ACoNs.
Sometimes it's nice to have something tangible to hold onto, especially when as a child your narcissistic parent kept you in a cloud of fog. Narcissists can be slipperier than eels when it comes to proving what they said or did. Remember what the author of "Characteristics of Narcissistic Mothers" wrote:
Everything she does is deniable. There is always a facile excuse or an explanation. Cruelties are couched in loving terms. Aggressive and hostile acts are paraded as thoughtfulness. Selfish manipulations are presented as gifts. Criticism and slander is slyly disguised as concern...
So if you're longing for something to actually hold onto, or a badge of honour, or a rite-of-passage, here's a pattern and instructions for how to make your own ACoN acorn to do with what you like.
For this rainy-day project, you need three colours of felt, a needle and thread (brown and green), scissors, a Sharpie pen to trace with, and a printer and paper for the template. Optional materials are ribbon or embroidery floss for hanging, straight pins, glue (i.e. Aleene's Tacky Glue), cotton batting or fibre-fill, and embellishments (beads, sequins, embroidery, etc.). To make the one in the photo, the only extras I required were embroidery floss and a darning needle. I added some stuffing to the acorn by inserting felt scraps left over from in-between the leaf lobes.
A fall colour scheme with yellow, orange or red leaves would be pretty, too. It's all up to you - you could even make it in bright fuchsia. Such is the beauty of art and self-expressionism.
To get started, print off a template and cut out the leaf, acorn and cap shapes. You can change the size of your finished project by scaling the image (I find the best way to go about this is: click on the image to get the full-size, then right-click on the image, save image as ____ to desktop or wherever you like, then open it with any image software, select "print preview" from the menu and see what it looks like relative to the sheet of computer paper).
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| PRINT ME OUT! YOU CAN SCALE THE SIZE UP OR DOWN. |
Instructions:
1. Gather the materials. Cut out the individual templates.
2. Trace and cut out the component parts (two of each).
3. Sew together the two halves. For the acorn body and cap, you might want to stuff it with cotton batting or fabric scraps - make sure you attend to that before completely sealing off the 'inside'! If the two halves don't exactly match up, try your best to square the edges as you sew without totally skewing the shape. You can trim 'overhang' or excess felt after you've completely sewn around the perimeter (I think this is the easiest and safest way to go about it).
(If you wish to add embroidery, do it before sewing together the two halves.)
4. Connect the acorn and the oak leaf together (how ever you think it looks best!), using ribbon or embroidery thread (or something else - you could simply pin them to something using a safety pin, too).
5. Hang it with pride!
If you like, you could fill the acorn with something scented (potpourri, dried lavender, cloves) and use it as a sachet. It could hang from a keychain, your rear-view mirror (keep it small if so!), etc. I keep mine hanging from a knob on my computer desk drawer.
project by Quercus
Show off your handiwork! If you make your own, please consider emailing an image of it to:
acon(DOT)anon(AT)gmail(DOT)com
for inclusion on this blog post! Please also give a name (i.e. made by Quercus), or a location (from Manitoba, Canada). You can simply remain anonymous, too (as always).
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