Weave your own pride flag with Queer Craft London

The first pride flag as we know it was crafted by Gilbert Baker in 1978. The self-taught designer was openly gay and performed as a drag queen. Urged by the gay politician Harvey Milk to invent a new symbol for the LGBTQI+ community, he came up with the rainbow stripes, apparently inspired by the Rolling Stones’ song, “She’s a rainbow”. Originally with pink 8th and turquoise 7th stripes, it was later reduced to the current version of 6 stripes. The two first pride flags waved at the 1978 San Francisco Pride Parade were hand-dyed and stitched. What better way to honor this history than weaving your own pride flag this year?

This is what offer Queer Craft London and A Whole Orange next week at Make Town, a London-based textiles & craft studio. Queer Craft has been running monthly workshops at Make Town. Ran by Becky, the workshops are an opportunity to develop your crafting skills in a welcoming environment. As for A Whole Orange, it is an IRL matchmaking service run by Kim in the UK capital too.

Called Fruits on a Loom, the event will take place on Friday the 10th. In the true spirit of the 1978’s pride, a collective flag will be made by all the attendees and will be waved at the London Pride and London Trans Pride. An opportunity to connect with the local LGBTQI+ folks and honor queer history, the event is a perfect start for the pride month awaiting us.

If you aren’t in the London area or can’t attend, we recommend trying to organize similar events with your local community to put some craftmanship and spirit of togetherness back into a now heavily marketed pride month. If this isn’t possible for you either, you can always try to make your own flag at home! Scroll down below to discover some video and written tutorials to make the perfect homemade pride flag, even without any experience in craft-making. And happy pride month!