A New Bookish Hobby to Get Addicted to: Cross-Stitching References to Your Favorite Books on Sweatshirt Sleeves

Everyone needs a hobby. And introverted bookworms? ADHD Bookworms? Well, we need new ones on the regular. I recently came across a video going viral on Booktok from Booktok Creator, @laurensbookdiary11, who said she’d seen it somewhere else and had started making the absolute cutest cropped bookish sweatshirt by cross-stitching little doodles and bookish references from her favorite books on the sleeves. New bookish hobby unlocked. I love that you can literally grab any old sweatshirt from your closet and keep it super budget friendly, or snag a new one from your favorite small bookish shop, and start adding your own stitches to it.

Some ideas:

• Read Banned Books crew and add references to all your favorite banned books

• House Galathynius crew and add the animal references to the Cadre

• Book Lover crew and add all your favorite book references

• Second Breakfast Club crew and add all your favorite foods

• Most Ardently crew and add your favorite Jane Austen references, or Romance references

Lauren also cropped hers, so it looks extra cute, in my opinion. I love when the book community takes something that isn’t necessarily new, but puts a bookish spin on it. And clearly a lot of people also loved the idea, because her video’s been viewed almost half a million times! I believe she’s also going to be doing some more tutorials on the actual stitching styles.

Wanna see the inspo? Here’s her video for reference (she’s completed so many and they’re all SO GOOD!):

@laurensbookdiary11 Because I couldn’t just simply read a book and move on, that’s absurd! 😅 ♬ original sound - laurensbookdiary11

The BAMTP community already got started on some of their own! @Toastii shared her stitching progress in our BAMTP community Discord server this week, and I’m obsessed:

image courtesy of @toastii

She said her plan is to “choose books that I love and still think about.” Every reader has those books that just stick with you. The stories you’d do almost anything to read for the first time again. And if you’re going to permanently stitch on your clothes, these types of reads seem like a solid pick. She also shared a bit more about how she’s deciding on what to stitch: “The symbols I choose are usually something major to the book/series that stands out to me. For example, I love this cozy funny mystery series that is in a little town of Louisiana and the one character feeds & names this alligator and some funny shenanigans happens so I plan to add a gator.”

So are you ready to try out this new bookish craft yourself?

Here’s everything you’re going to need to get started:

• Sweatshirt (again, can be something you already have in your closet, and want to upcycle, or you can grab a new one)

• Embroidery needles

• Embroidery loop (small)

• Embroidery floss in a bunch of colors (or an entire kit like this)

• Stabilizer paper that washes away

• Scissors

• Needle Threader

• Fabric pen

Just in time for a summer season bookish project. Can’t wait to see what you all create! Drop a comment and let us know what books you’ll be adding to your sweatshirts/jackets/tote bags! And of course, happy sewing.

P.S. If you want to try out some general cute stitching, there’s also some cool preprinted stabilizer paper, so you don’t have to draw your own designs:

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P.S. If you end up getting any items or books through an Amazon affiliate link above, you’ll be helping me keep this site and newsletter free for our community. Thanks in advance for supporting a fellow bookworm! I will always disclose affiliate links when they’re present. :) Happy reading!