All You Need to Know to Learn to Cross Stitch

Over on my blog, Our Daily Craft, I’ve been working on some pages that bring together a lot of information I’ve shared about different crafts over the course of the 15 (!) or so years I’ve been writing over there to make it easier for people to find what they need to get started.

I recently published a post all about how to cross stitch, and while it might not be totally “done,” I think it’s a good start for anyone wanting to learn or who might need a refresher on the basics.

The post covers everything from the basic supplies you need to get started to questions like, does cross stitch fabric have a front side? or do you need to use a hoop?

It covers how big to make your fabric, how to find the center of the fabric and the pattern, how to use a hoop and get your embroidery floss ready, where and how to start stitching, full and partial stitches and more.

I feel like a lot of the stuff I share over here assumes basic knowledge of cross stitch, but I know that’s not always the case and we want to be welcoming to stitchers of all skill levels. If we’re being honest I’m not all that advanced myself, but I am (very slowly) working on a big and super colorful cross stitch pattern for the first time in a long time, which will probably boost my skills pretty quickly.

If you are a beginner and you have a question I haven’t answered, drop a comment here. Or if you’re a more seasoned stitcher and you have a tip or notice something that I didn’t cover, let me know that, too! We’re all learning here together and sharing the joy of stitching.

You can check out my learn to cross stitch post here. Happy stitching!

Learn to Cross Stitch in Minutes

How to Cross Stitch on Linen

I’m going to go ahead and admit that I totally missed Toy Story 4, so it took my by surprise when Toy Story 5 came out, but let’s celebrate with some Toy Story cross stitch patterns.

This sweet design including Woody, Buzz and Jessie is from The Xstitch Shop, and they actually have a few different Toy Story options. This one says it is for intermediate stitches, probably because of the size and number of colors, but the sales page doesn’t say how big it is or how many colors it uses. It’s still cute, though!

If you’ve got a fan of Jessie in your household, this collection of Jessie themed icons is super cute to stitch. The design is from Mercury Stitches and it measures 97 by 144 stitches. that comes out to 6.9 by 10.3 inches, or 17.6 by 26.1 cm, and uses 11 colors. It has full and half cross stitches, as well as back stitching and French knots.

Share the love of friendship with this sweet Woody and Buzz heart hands cross stitch pattern from Pixell Patterns. This design uses eight colors and is shown worked on 14 count fabric, but the notes don’t indicate how bit is is (based on a finished project photo, though, it looks pretty big).

And for the Buzz Lightyear fans, of course we have to have a “To infinity and beyond” pattern, so here’s one from Silver Lake Stitches. This design is super cute on blue fabric, but use whatever you have. It measures 78 by 92 stitches, which comes out to 5.6 by 6.6 inches, or 14.2 by 16.7 cm, on 14 count fabric. It calls for 14 colors.

Or if you want to go beyond the core three main character toys, check out this project from ThreeOOne Patterns, which includes our main toys as well as Bo Peep and her sheep, Bullseye the horse, the Slinky dog, Rex, Ham, the Potato Heads and an alien. The design is 310 by 80 stitches, which comes out to 21.14 by 3.5 inches, or 53.7 by 8.9 cm, when worked on 14 count fabric. It uses 65 colors. Or pick out your favorite characters to make a smaller project.

All those characters and a few more are found on the mini Toy Story character sampler from Knotalot UK (only part of which is shown above). This one uses 31 colors and measures 134 by 108 stitches. It includes whole and fractional stitches, as well as back stitching. On 14 count fabric stitching the whole thing would make a project that’s 9.57 by 7.71 inches, or 24.31 by 19.59 cm.

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