How to Apologize As an American! SORRY USAD: United States Apologies Desk. Applique Sewing Techniques for Atonement.

How to apologise as an American? I am an American immigrant to the UK, I live in Edinburgh, Scotland - this was my way to do something in the face of the onslaught of authoritarianism back home in the USA and my great embarrassment over the actions of President Trump.

This instructable will take you through the process of reconfiguring an American flag with the words "SORRY" as the foundation for a performance and public intervention that I staged in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and London in 2025. I will take you through the process of making the flag, my first ever experience using a sewing machine and other techniques to "appliqué" the Scottish wool felt lettering to the cotton American flag.Below is the official info on the project:

SORRY USAD: United States Apologies Desk is an ongoing series of public art interventions by American-born, Edinburgh-based artist and activist Joseph DeLappe. First launched in Edinburgh on July 4th and 5th, 2025, followed by taking the desk to Aberdeen, on the 25th of July, 2025, to protest Donald Trump’s visit to Scotland. I also took the work to London as part of the massive "Fall of Freedom" event organising over 600 actions around the USA in November of 2005.

At the heart of the intervention is a simple yet striking setup: a small desk draped with a cotton American flag, altered with hand-sewn woollen letters to read “SORRY.” A placard atop the desk reads “USAD – United States Apologies Desk”, humorously framing the project as an unofficial diplomatic gesture. DeLappe sits behind the desk, with an empty chair opposite him—an open invitation for the public to sit, talk, and engage in honest conversation about the global impact of U.S. policies, leadership, and imperial legacies. The project invites passersby into moments of shared reflection, political dialogue, and public atonement.

Each participant is offered a hand-signed apology card, including DeLappe’s personal pledge to resist Donald Trump and all forms of fascist ideology through civic and creative engagement. By occupying public space with humility and intention, SORRY reimagines protest as dialogue, and personal accountability as performance. I've written in some detail about the experiences of meeting with dozens of strangers conducting this project - read more about it on my blog.

Some news stories about SORRY: USAD United States Apologies Desk:

The National Scot US man sets up 'apologies desk' ahead of Donald Trump's Aberdeen visit

The Washington Post Scotland protests Trump – with wit, bite and bagpipes

Reuters American artist offers apology to Scots during Trump visit

A very special thank you to my wife, Ellie DeLappe, for taking most of the photos of the performance!

1) An American Flag - I picked mine up from AAA American Flag shop in New York City https://www.aaaamericanflag.com/ it was important that the flag was made from cotton as I wished to have the materiality of the flag somehow be representative of America (I suppose nylon could be just as American when you think about it...).

2) Scottish organic wool - in Black and in White. A square metre of each. Again, the material is meaningful to the work, I didn't want to use cheap synthetic felt, which is basically made from petroleum products - actual wool is symbolically important to the work (and lovely to work with).

3) Sewing machine - you could do this by hand but that would be quite time consuming.

4) Good Fabric Scissors

5) Clothes iron

6) Inkjet printer (for printing the templates)

7) Iron on sheets applique adhesive for attaching the letter prior to sewing such as "Steam-A-Seam".

8) Clothes iron

9) White pen (you could use chalk for this)

10) Sewing machine, or needle and thread if you with to do this by hand.

On a vist to NYC last April, I bought the flag - I honestly wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but thought it would spark some ideas. It was after returning to Scotland that the idea to use the flag to somehow apologise as an American first came about.

Sharing here the three steps towards designing the flag. I chose the most straight up American font I could think of, Helvetica Bold. These are three iterations towards the final design. I liked the word "Apologies" but it was just too long and not very readable (my flag was also not as long as the one used for this one). The word "sorry" just made sense - it is so English (and Scottish for that matter), to constantly say "sorry", one hears this again and again here - one doesn't say "excuse me" here, but "sorry" is omnipresent - so much so that it becomes almost meaningless as a true apology. Putting this on an American flag and going out in public here is Scotland, and later in England - it just made sense.

I went to a local fabric shop here in Edinburgh, to look at their selection of felt - sythetic felt is available in just about any color but I wanted this to be authentic to Scotland - wool is omnipresent here from kilts to scarves, jumpers, Harris Tweed, etc. So I bought some organic wool, about a metre square in black and in white. The choice of fabric in both the flag and the letter is important - the cotton flag is the American in me - the Scottish wool represents my new home.

Once I had my design of the lettering complete, I printed the letters out at scale to fit the final layout on the flag. I cut out the individual letters and placed them on the flag to be sure they were the correct size and start to finalise placement.

Please note, I did this step FIRST with the white felt (forgot to take photos of this step). The white letters were larger than the black to give the outline. So essentially I duplicated the step described here, doing it first for the white lettering, then laying the black on top.

First time using the iron on transfer paper, I traced from the same paper templates each letter on to the transfer paper, then cut them out with scissors and fit them to the back of each letter (be sure and DON'T iron these on to the front of your letters!). I cut the transfer paper about a 1/4" shy of being exactly the same size of each letter, I don't think this was really necessary but didn't want the glue to be at all visible.

I then ironed the transfer paper to the back of each letter. Then placed the lettering on the flag, being sure everything was exactly where I wanted it as once ironed on difficult to correct placement.

There are loads of videos available online, these tutorials were very helpful.

In retrospect I discovered I could have saved a step and used inkjet printable applique transfer paper - this could have then been straight ironed on to the fabric to be cut out and then ironed on to the flag.

First step after ironing on the white background lettering on to the flag was to get to sewing. My first experience using a sewing machine - I followed a number of youtube videos to figure out how to use a sewing machine. This one was a great help.

I used white thread and sewed on the white letters.

Following this, I then ironed on the black letters to attach them to the white, carefully placing them to ensure proper alignment. I then sewed the black letters in place using black thread.

I found a used IKEA LAGKAPTEN/ADILS desk on Gumtree (this is the Craigslist of the UK), and bought two ASKHOLMEN wooden folding chairs new (£25 each). I actually built a smaller table top for the performance as I wanted this to fit the exact size of the flag (the IKEA table was about 15cm too long). I also made my table a bit more narrow for ease of transport and to ensure that I would be closer to those who chose to sit with me and chat. I was also wanting to make sure this would all fit on my bike trailer for transport to the performance site here in Edinburgh.

I used the same photoshop design for the flag to make an exact replica for the card. This is the card I sign, number, and give to anyone who chooses to sit with me and accept my apology. Inside the card is a listing of some of the things I am sorry for and a commitment to keeping up the fight.

I made an announcement and a media release - following this I sent this to various media outlets here in Scotland and internationally. I also uploaded all the info to my website and shared on my various social media (Instagram, Facebook). It is important for this kind of public intervention to get the word out. Thankfully this was picked up locally in Edinburgh by the Edinburgh Minute, among others, which brought loads of people out. I chose a spot in the centre of the city, on the plaza at The Mound just adjacent to the National Galleries. You can read more about the experience on my website here.