One of the basic issues a new cross stitcher (or even someone with more experience) might face is wondering how large to make their cross stitch fabric when they are stitching up a design.
While patterns usually tell you how many stitches are used in the pattern and what type of fabric they used, they don’t always give you a measurement in inches of centimeters of how large the pattern actually is.
And if they do, they don’t always talk about how much space to leave around the pattern if you want to frame it, or even just to make it fit in the hoop well while you’re stitching.
Figuring out how large the pattern itself is is actually pretty easy, you just have to do a little math and know what kind of fabric you’re using.
In case you didn’t already know this, the number on cross-stitch fabric indicates how many stitches per inch, so 14 count fabric has holes for 14 stitches in an inch. If you’re working on 14 count fabric and your design has, say, 64 by 105 stitches (totally made up), your design would be 4.6 by 7.5 inches. (That’s 64 divided by 14, and 105 divide by 14.)
That only tells you exactly what space the stitches will cover when you stitch the pattern. How much extra fabric you need will depend on the size of your hoop and how you intend to use the finished project.
For example if you’re mounting it in a hoop, the fabric won’t need to be much bigger than the hoop, but if you’re going to frame it you might need a lot more extra fabric. This post from Catkin and Lillie covers everything you need to know about what size your cross stitch fabric needs to be and includes a link to an online calculator that will make it a lot easier if you don’t want to do the math yourself.
[Photo: Catkin and Lille.]
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