Celebrate the Year of the Dog in Cross Stitch

2018 is the year of the dog in Chinese astrology, so why not stitch up a dog symbol or another fun project involving a dog?

Both Holly’s Hobbies and Stitching Stitches have cross-stitch patterns showing the Chinese zodiac symbol for the dog. The first is 50 x 50 stitches or 3.6″/9cm square and the second 47 wide x 49 high, which comes out to
3.36″ x 3.50″ or 8.54 x 8.8 cm. Holly’s costs $2.79, which the Stitching Stitches chart is $2.48. Both are PDF downloads from Etsy.

Also on Etsy, I found this cute Year of the Dog cross stitch pattern from The Art of Cross Stitch. Featuring a dog that sort of reminds me of Day of the Dead designs, this one runs $4.50 and measures 95 x 109 stitches, which comes out to 7 by 8 inches on 14 count.

There’s also the magnificent Chinese New Year Dog cross stitch design from Scarlet Pyjamas, which is $4.51. Inspired by papercuts, the finished project is about 8.5 by 12 inches.

Are you stitching anything special for the Year of the Dog? I’d love to hear about it!

Next Pattern:

Stitch a Rabbit for the Year of the Rabbit

I recently wrote a post on my blog about using a stitchable journal cover and I mentioned that you can make your own stitched cover for a journal by using perforated paper instead of buying a stitchable notebook.

I have to admit, though, that I’ve never used perforated paper for cross stitch myself. I definitely want to because I think it would be great to use for bookmarks that don’t fray and have a little more stability, for example.

Sirious Stitches has us covered, though, because they did a deep dive into all things perforated cross stitch pattern that is worth the time to read through.

The post mentions that a lot of people use perforated paper for cross stitch because they buy an ornament kit that uses it. I’ve never seen these (or at least never noticed that that is what they were) but it’s a great idea to make small projects like ornaments in this way. It also talks about the pros and cons of using cross stitch paper, where to buy it and how to make your own.

Making it yourself is an awesome idea because if you already have a pattern in mind you can just make holes in your paper where you need stitches to be and leave the rest solid. This would be ideal for making greeting cards, for example.

In addition to kits and sheets you can often find the paper pre-cut into different shapes you can use to make your own designs, no real pattern required.

The post also includes tips and advice for how to stitch on perforated paper that you’ll want to check out before you try your first project.

I’m super intrigued by the idea of using perforated paper for cross stitch and will probably be trying it out soon. Have you used it before? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Check out the post over at Sirious Stitches for more information.

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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