How To Embroider on Paper

This is a technique that isn’t strictly cross stitch, but you could do it in cross stitch if you wanted to.

Embroidery on paper isn’t difficult, you just have to create holes to sew through, so it takes a little planning to make complex designs. But making holes in a grid pattern would be relatively easy and would allow you to cross-stitch a multitude of designs.

There are several examples of embroidery on paper over at All Things Paper, and they are really inspiring. I love the look of stitching on paper and think it would be a great way to make a greeting card super special.

Have you ever cross-stitched or embroidered on paper? I’d love to know what you made and how it went.

[Photo via All Things Paper.]

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How to Railroad Your Cross Stitch

I am known to be really paranoid when it comes to cutting cross stitch fabric for a project. I will math it out, count, recount, think about it, worry, decide it needs to be bigger than math plus my already large margin for error suggests. If I could just be confident in choosing the correct size of fabric I’d have a lot more stitching time!

Sometimes you have a lot of extra fabric beyond where you are stitching because your fabric is too big. Or maybe you’re just working on a big project that leaves excess fabric potentially in your way when you are stitching.

Hannah Hand Makes has a post all about how to deal with excess fabric on the sides of a large cross stitch project (which is actually a podcast if you’d rather listen). She is talking more about huge stitchalong projects where you need a big piece of fabric than my particular problem of timid cutting, but the same advice applies.

I am lazy and don’t want to buy new products, so I would probably devise some sort of rolling and clamping situation with items I already have in the house, but she has some great tips for actual products you can buy that will help with this situation such as large hoops, standing frames and scroll frames. One of these solutions would certainly be worth the investment if you’re doing a year long (or otherwise long term) stitchalong or really big project where that excess fabric is going to cause problems.

Because beyond being annoying, odds are good I’m going to end up stitching right through that extra fabric and making a big mess.

Check out all the tips for working with a really big piece of cross stitch fabric over at Hannah Hand Makes.

What’s the biggest cross stitch project you’ve ever made? I’d love to hear all about it!

[Photo: Hannah Hand Makes]

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