How to Cross Stitch a QR Code

July 31, 2023 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

I came across this Bored Panda post the other day that shows different cool and unusual things people have done with cross stitch. You’re welcome to scroll through the whole thing if you like — there’s definitely a lot of cool stuff in there — but the one I wanted to point out was number 11, which is from a Reddit post, in which user _The_Blonde_One_ made a QR code for their WiFi password, which is actually pretty genius.

So I dug around a little bit and found a post on Instructables by r-lavelle that explains how to go about converting a QR code into cross stitch. It’s actually not that hard to do.

They used an already produced code, but if you want to generate your own for something like your WiFi password, directions to your house or whatever you might want to keep in a handy, scanable format, you can use a free QR code generator online to develop the code you want to stitch up.

Once you have that, you can draw out a chart (or a QR code is a grid, so you can stitch directly from that if you’re super fancy). The way the Instructables tutorial does it, it makes a grid that’s 29 by 29 stitches square.

And when you have your grid transferred to graph paper, you can just stitch it up in black thread on white fabric and you’re all set. You’ll of course want to test it before you hang it to make sure it sends people where you want it to go.

I love _The_Blonde_One_’s addition of the house shape and a label so people know what it is for. If you’re chaotic you can make several QR codes to hang around your house and send people random places. I love the idea of having one hanging in the bathroom. Where would you direct people to go with your cross stitched QR code?

[Photo: _The_Blonde_One_, via Reddit]

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An Easy Way to Keep Cross Stitch Fabric from Fraying

If you’ve been cross stitching for a while, you might have heard of this hack before, but for our newer stitchers I wanted to mention it since I came across it again recently on the Koekoek blog.

One of the potential problems with working with cross stitch fabric is that it is woven, so it can fray along the edges while you are stitching. If your fabric is bigger than you need for your project this is merely annoying, but if you’ve cut your fabric to the size you want your project to be when you frame it, you don’t really want to lose a lot of fabric on the sides.

There are lots of potential ways to stop this fraying, including stitching the edges with blanket stitch, but if you don’t want to take that kind of time on something that other people will never see, an easy way to stop the fray is with painter’s tape.

My mom used to do this on her projects (I think she used masking tape, not painter’s tape, but it’s the same idea) and it is helpful, especially if you’re working on a big project that’s going to be exposed to potential fraying for a long time.

Of course you’ll want to remove the tape when you’re done stitching, and then you can finish the edges in another way or just tuck them inside your frame, depending on how you plan to finish the project.

I also sometimes use tape to position a project in a frame, like I did with this upcycled yarn wrapped picture frame that has a cross stitch piece in it. Painter’s tape is nice because it removes easily and cleanly and is easy to reposition if you need to move your project around or you decide you don’t want it framed like that any more.

Learn all the details of this technique over at the Koekoek blog. And let me know what you do to stabilize the edges of your projects while you’re stitching!

[Photo: Koekoek]

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