How to Dye Cross Stitch Fabric

When I was learning to cross stitch as a kid, there were not a lot of options when it came to the color of cross stitch fabric. Other things may have been available, but in that age before the Internet I had access to what was in my local crafts store or the craft section of the big box store (which wasn’t that big back then). So that was pretty much white and ecru, and maybe black or dark blue.

There are a lot more options available these days, even at the big box craft store in town. Add the Internet and you can get an array of colors, patterns and designs like this pretty galaxy fabric or muted mottled prints.

But sometimes you might want a particular color of cross stitch fabric that isn’t available, or that is expensive or you want to use something you already have in your stash. In those cases you might want to dye your own cross stitch fabric.

It makes sense that this wouldn’t be any more difficult or really a different process at all than dyeing other fabric, but sometimes it’s helpful to see someone else do it before you try it just to reassure yourself that you know what you’re doing.

In that case I direct you to this helpful tutorial from Stitching Corner, in which they turned plain cross stitch fabric into tye-dyed fabric using commercially available dyes.

The main thing to note before trying this at home is that the fabric you have is compatible with the dye you have (so if your fabric is cotton use a dye that works on cotton, for example).

Check the post for the step by step details of how to dye cross stitch fabric with a single color or a couple at once. Would you or have you tried this? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[Photo: Stitching Corner]

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35+ Sunflower Cross Stitch Patterns

If you love patterns for frogs and sardines, animals, food, flowers and more, Happy Cross Stitchers has got you covered. With more than 1,600 patterns as of this writing, you’re almost guaranteed to find something you like.

I don’t know if I’ve missed something that cross stitch patterns featuring sardines are showing up everywhere (this is the second designer I’ve seen with them in the past month or so) but Happy Cross Stitchers has 60 sardine cross stitch patterns. They also have 200 patterns with flowers, and even more than that in their biggest category, which is animals.

Many of the animal cross stitch patterns have a modern nursery feel to them, like this set of four modern boho animal patterns featuring what I’m interpreting as owls, a moose (or it coulr be a deer), a donkey and a cow. Each individual pattern is 100 by 100 stitches and they use six or seven colors. The designs will come out to 7.1 inches or 18.14 cm when stitched on 14 count fabric.

There’s also a large number of Christmas cross stitch patterns, with lots of trees, little houses, Santas and word art. There are lots of bunnies, eggs and chicks in the Easter section.

The modern designs include lots of colorful, graphic florals. There are also well over 100 butterflies, many of which at least look like they could be inspired by real butterflies (though none of them are labeled as to what kind of butterfly they are).

You’ll also find plenty of cute and often funny cat and dog cross stitch patterns, though there are a lot more cats than dogs represented. And then there’s the food section, with patterns for fruits, different kinds of toast, a jar of pickles, doughnuts and more.

And that’s not even all there is in this store! I guess all this is a long way of saying there’s a lot of fun patterns at www.etsy.com/shop/HappyCrossStitchers on Etsy and you should go browse because you’ll probably find something you like. And if you do, I’d like to hear about it!

[Photo: Happy Cross Stitchers]

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