How to Fix Mistakes in Cross Stitch

I’ve just recently started what for me is the biggest cross stitch project I’ve ever attempted (the Baby Yaga House from Happy Little Mouse) and I know that there are going to be some mistakes in it.

It uses a lot of colors, and there are a lot of similar colors, and the symbols are kind of small and I have old lady eyes, etc.

I think for the most part I will just let mistakes go, because it is such a colorful pattern and the colors are so similar in a lot of places. Unless I just completely mess up and put a stitch where there shouldn’t be a stitch at all, I don’t think I’ll try to correct any/many mistakes as I go.

I know not everyone has this kind of attitude about mistakes in cross stitch (or other crafts, for that matter). But if a mistake is something I wouldn’t even notice unless I was comparing the stitched project to the chart, I am not going to worry about it.

If you’re the type who wants their projects to look exactly as the chart intended, though, you’re going to need to know how to fix mistakes. Notorious Needle has a great blog post on this subject, giving you a couple of options for how to fix a miscounted or mis-stitched stitch, as well as ways to try to prevent mistakes in the first place.

The advice is solid, and there are definitely projects where it would be more important that every stitch is made in the color it was intended, so it’s good to keep these tips handy should you need them for a project like that.

You can read the post at Notorious Needle.

How do you feel about fixing mistakes in your cross stitch? Are you a by the chart stitcher or are you willing to let some things go? I’d love to hear about it!

Should You Fix that Mistake in Your Cross Stitch?

Cross-Stich For Stress Relief – Unwinding And Relaxing With Needle And Thread

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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