Horror Movie Cross Stitch Patterns

After sharing some cute Halloween patterns the other day, let’s go in the other direction with some cross stitch patterns inspired by horror movies.

You can stitch up an actually still kind of cute Ghostface from Scream with this pattern from Red Splatter Designs. It looks like it uses about five colors, and has a stitch area of 4.07 by 6.57 inches, or 10.3 by 16.7 cm. It would be perfect in an 8-inch hoop.

This mini Freddy Kruger from Night Sky Studio Dee is another fun one, and looks great on black fabric. He fits in a 4 to 6 inch hoop and would be great to hang in your TV room.

The Shining is about as scary as I can take, so I wanted to add in this Shining sampler from By Meg C. It includes all the highlights, from creepy twins to weird carpet, Danny’s tricycle and Jack’s typewriter. It’s 200 by 200 stitches and when you stitch it on 18 count fabric it fits in a 12-inch hoop.

If you can’t narrow down which horror movie is your favorite, you might want to stitch one of these projects instead. It’s horror movie time includes eight classic horror movie characters (don’t ask me to name them, I’m missing a couple) and is sold by Vikycialp. It only uses two colors and is 245 by 309 stitches. On 14 count fabric that comes out to 17.5 by 22 inches, or 44.4 by 56 cm.

The Friend horror cross stitch pattern from Leila Stitch is incredibly detailed and would be awesome for a horror lover with a dedicated movie room. It uses 18 colors (I really thought it would be more!) and measures 200 by 120 stitches. That’s 14.29 by 8.57 inches, or 36.3 by 21.77 cm, if you use 14 count fabric.

And if you like a little cute with your horror, I’m a horroraholic features mini versions of all your favorite slashers. (The pattern page doesn’t show it stitched on fabric but you get the idea from the photo.) This one is from Shimmering Pine Studio and comes out to about 21.5 by 17.5 inches, or 54.6 by 44.5 cm, on 14 count fabric.

Next Pattern:

Shamrock Cross Stitch Patterns

I’ll admit to not taking as much care as I should when finishing cross stitch projects. Just like blocking in knitting or crochet, taking the time to finish a cross stitch project right means it will look its best, whether you’re making it as a gift or to keep.

And when it comes to cross stitch, the best method for finishing is washing and pressing.

Kat and Catkin and Lillie makes the argument that you should always press your finished pieces, and wash them the vast majority of the time as well.

Washing of course will help if there is any visible dirt that got on the project while stitching, but it also helps remove oils and skin cells you can’t see but that can speed up damage to your project in the long run.

Washing and pressing also help remove creases from the hoop or from storing the project, and if you use heat-erasable marking pens to grid your fabric, this will remove any visible marks.

So we’ve got the why down, but what about the how?

Kat has a great step by step tutorial on how to wash your cross stitch projects and how to iron them safely. You probably have everything you need to do this, it just takes a bit of time to go through the process. It’s certainly worth it, though, if you’ve spent a lot of time on a project and are gifting it or framing it and want to show it off to its best.

Click over to the post at Catkin and Lillie for all the details, plus some really good thoughts on times when you might not want to wash a project and how to test the colorfastness of your threads so you’ll know if a project is safe to wash.

Do you wash and press your finished cross stitch projects? I’d love to hear all about your process!

[Photo: Catkin and Lillie]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply