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]

One of the easiest ways to make a cross stitch project more personal is to add text to it. Whether you’re adding the names of people getting married to a generic floral cross stitch design, birth information to a project on theme with the new baby’s room or just adding a word or phrase that’s meaningful to you, adding words to cross stitch projects make them that much more special.

But if you’re not working with a project that already has text built in, or you want to change the text that’s there, that can feel a little daunting.

Caterpillar Cross Stitch has a great guide to adding names and words (as well as numbers) to projects, which talks you through what to consider and how to actually go about adding text to a cross stitch project successfully.

You’ll need to think about what kind of font you want to use and if you’re using back stitched letters or larger filled letters, how much space you need and how the letters work together in the text you’re planning to make sure it’s readable.

Their post includes common pitfalls such as running out a space or ending up with text that’s off center and how to avoid them (spoiler: chart out your text before you stitch!).

The whole post is really helpful if you’ve never added lettering to a project before and don’t know where to start. I like to use block letters in back stitch when learning how to add text to cross stitch, but of course there are tons of lettering options. Check out this collection of cross stitch fonts if you want to see some different things you can try.

And head over to Caterpillar Cross Stitch to get more tips for how to successfully add lettering to your cross stitch projects. They also have their own alphabet and number charts you can buy to add text to your stitching.

Have you ever added text to a cross stitch project? I’d love to hear how it went!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

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