How to Cross Stitch on Linen

For all that I’ve been writing about cross stitch for years, I am not very adventurous when it comes to projects or new techniques. I have never, for example, stitched on linen, because regular Aida fabric feels so much easier.

It’s not that cross stitching on linen is actually difficult, but there is a learning curve involved. The first thing to know is that you generally work over two threads instead of the single block in Aida because linen has a higher thread count. That being the case it’s not as easy to see where your stitch should go compared to the simple boxes on Aida fabric.

You also need to choose linen fabric with a count double to what you would use with Aida. So if you would normally use 16 count fabric you’d use 32 count linen, for example.

Why would you want to choose linen for a cross stitch project? Linen has a lovely natural look (because it is a natural fiber, made from flax) and because it has fewer holes it has a smoother overall appearance than regular cross stitch fabric. It’s great to give a sort of old fashioned, instant heirloom look to your projects.

Because of the way you work stitches on linen over two threads, it’s easier to make fractional stitches when working on linen, so if you have a really detailed project that uses lots of partial stitches, choosing to work it on linen might make it a bit easier.

Since I am not the expert on any of this I’ll direct you to a great blog post all about cross stitching on linen from Crewel Ghoul. The post includes lots of good tips that will make it a little easier for you to work with linen should you want to do so on a future project.

Have you ever worked a cross stitch pattern on linen fabric? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Crewel Ghoul]

I’m going to go ahead and admit that I totally missed Toy Story 4, so it took my by surprise when Toy Story 5 came out, but let’s celebrate with some Toy Story cross stitch patterns.

This sweet design including Woody, Buzz and Jessie is from The Xstitch Shop, and they actually have a few different Toy Story options. This one says it is for intermediate stitches, probably because of the size and number of colors, but the sales page doesn’t say how big it is or how many colors it uses. It’s still cute, though!

If you’ve got a fan of Jessie in your household, this collection of Jessie themed icons is super cute to stitch. The design is from Mercury Stitches and it measures 97 by 144 stitches. that comes out to 6.9 by 10.3 inches, or 17.6 by 26.1 cm, and uses 11 colors. It has full and half cross stitches, as well as back stitching and French knots.

Share the love of friendship with this sweet Woody and Buzz heart hands cross stitch pattern from Pixell Patterns. This design uses eight colors and is shown worked on 14 count fabric, but the notes don’t indicate how bit is is (based on a finished project photo, though, it looks pretty big).

And for the Buzz Lightyear fans, of course we have to have a “To infinity and beyond” pattern, so here’s one from Silver Lake Stitches. This design is super cute on blue fabric, but use whatever you have. It measures 78 by 92 stitches, which comes out to 5.6 by 6.6 inches, or 14.2 by 16.7 cm, on 14 count fabric. It calls for 14 colors.

Or if you want to go beyond the core three main character toys, check out this project from ThreeOOne Patterns, which includes our main toys as well as Bo Peep and her sheep, Bullseye the horse, the Slinky dog, Rex, Ham, the Potato Heads and an alien. The design is 310 by 80 stitches, which comes out to 21.14 by 3.5 inches, or 53.7 by 8.9 cm, when worked on 14 count fabric. It uses 65 colors. Or pick out your favorite characters to make a smaller project.

All those characters and a few more are found on the mini Toy Story character sampler from Knotalot UK (only part of which is shown above). This one uses 31 colors and measures 134 by 108 stitches. It includes whole and fractional stitches, as well as back stitching. On 14 count fabric stitching the whole thing would make a project that’s 9.57 by 7.71 inches, or 24.31 by 19.59 cm.

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