Graduation Cross Stitch Patterns

I recently shared a review of a book full of graduation cross stitch patterns and noted that I haven’t shared a lot of graduation cross stitch patterns before. So let’s take a look at some in case you have a graduate this year.

Keep it simple with this personalized mortarboard and diploma design from Little Apple Stitchery. You can add the graduate’s name, school and the year of graduation, or put their name at the top and their school, major (if graduating from college) and year at the bottom. As shown the design is 119 by 119 stitches, which comes out to about 8.5 inches/21.5 cm square.

Favorite Gnome has a cute graduation gnome, and you could personalize the color of the gown and/or the balloons to the school colors of the graduate. As shown it uses 21 colors and comes out to 8 by 7 inches/18.5 by 17.1 cm on 14 count fabric, with a stitching area of 102 by 94 stitches.

This word art graduation cross stitch pattern from New England Artsncraft is available as a pattern only or a kit that includes floss, fabric and a needle as well as the instructions. (The pattern is printed and shipped, not a digital pattern.) The project is 9.6 by 9.1 inches, or 24.3 by 23.3 cm on 14 count fabric and uses two colors.

The design from Elchka Cross Stitch doesn’t have a place for personalization, but it’s still a nice project for someone graduating. It is 93 by 87 stitches, and it’s about 6.6 by 6.2 inches, or 16.9 by 15.8 cm.

Cross Stitch of the Sea offers this lovely design of a graduation cap sitting on a stack of books with flowers. It’s 150 by 135 stitches, which is 10.71 by 9.64 inches/27.21 by24.49 cm on 14 count fabric. It uses 40 colors but is all full cross stitches.

If you know a girl who is graduating, these last two might be for you. The Graduated pattern from PuntAGOpetitePattern shows the back of a graduate with long brown hair, but you can change the color of the gown and the hair as needed. If you want a custom color pattern written for you, you can contact the designer.

And Skylark Cross Stitch has this pretty design perfect for a girly girl graduating in her heels. It uses 25 colors and four blends and has full and half cross stitches, back stitch and small back stitch, but if you’ve got the skills this is a beautiful one to make!

Next Pattern:

31+ Cross Stitch Ideas For Teacher Appreciation Gifts

One of the most common problems that cross stitchers at all skill levels have is that the cross stitch fabric can start fraying while you stitch.

Beginner cross stitchers might wonder why this happens and if there is something they are doing wrong to cause it.

The reason cross stitch fabric frays is because it is a woven fabric, and the nature of any kind of woven fabric (whether that’s cross stitch fabric, a torn up towel or a piece of fabric you’re going to sew) is that it wants to fray.

It’s not necessarily a huge deal if you cross stitch fabric starts fraying mid-project if you have left a lot of extra fabric around your stitching. But if there’s not much fabric to spare in order to be able to finish the project the way you want, you’ll want to do something to stop the fraying.

When I was growing up I remember my mom using masking tape for this purpose, but it turns out there are lots of different things that you can do to stop your cross stitch fabric from fraying.

Craft with Cartwright came up with 15 different things that you can try, which seems like a lot, but that just means you have lots of different things you can try.

If you don’t want to buy something, you can stitch along the edges. If you already have supplies like tape or glue, or access to pinking shears or a serger, there are lots of options you can try.

Some of these are more permanent than others, so it will depend a little bit on how you want to finish your cross stitch project as to which is the best choice for you. It’s a great idea to read through the whole list just so you can have them in the back of yoru mind the next time you start a project and think about how you would like to protect it.

You can find the whole list at Craft with Cartwright.

How do you like to stop fraying on your cross stitch projects? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[Photo: Craft with Cartwright]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?