The Craft Connection: Cross Stitch Basics

Here is a quick look at some basics of Cross stitch as promised in my earlier post here.

Materials needed:

Fabric: There are lot of different kinds of fabrics available for cross stitch. Cross stitch requires a grid like weave on which you can easily make an X. I use 14 count Aida cloth for the wall arts and some greeting cards. Count of the cloth means the stitches per inch. For example, 14 count cloth means that there are 14 stitches (squares) per inch. Aida cloth comes in various counts like 11,14,18,22. The bigger the count the more dense the linen is woven. you can also use linen for cross stitch projects and these linen cloths also come in different counts.

Threads : Threads are available in cotton, pearl cotton, silk, metallic etc. materials. I use DMC cotton threads/ Most of the cross stitch patterns mention the number of strands to use. Generally you need 2 strands, unless a pattern mentions otherwise.

Needle: I like to work with tapestry needles. They are slightly blunt and have a large eye to thread the floss. They can accommodate floss which is thicker than the sewing threads. For example, embroidery floss, crochet thread.

First and foremost, we need to determine the center of the fabric. All you need to do is fold your fabric horizontally and vertically and mark the center. But, my OCD doesn’t let me do that. Here is how i figure out where the center of the cloth is.

Once the center is marked, it corresponds to the center given in the pattern. I generally mark it with a different color thread. It helps to find the center again. The center stitch works as base for counting the stitches. I, then, work the stitches in the outward way.

So cross stitch designs are just many tiny X’s. This is how you make the X's..

You bring up your threaded needle up from the back of the fabric.

Then insert it down diagonally to the right from where the needle came up.

This is half of the cross stitch (X).

Now bring the needle back up from the hole above the hole you just went down through. ( yeah, sounds confusing, check the image)

The needle now goes down diagonally to the left from where the needle came up.

The X is now completed.

One thing to keep in mind while doing cross stitch is that all the X’s should cross the same way. So it means, going up from left to bottom right for each stitch ( this makes half an X) ...