Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

How to Transfer a Cross Stitch Pattern to Your Fabric

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When working small cross stitch projects, it’s easy enough to follow along with the chart and always know where you are. You can start from the center and work out, or start from a corner and work across and up and down as needed without too much trouble. 

But when it comes to working bigger projects, especially if you’re new to cross stitch (or to big projects) you might want a little more help to keep you in the right place on you pattern. 

I’m a fan of gridding cross stitch fabric to help you visualize where you are in the pattern. Because the chart generally will have thicker lines every 10 stitches and 10 rows, you can make those same marks on your fabric and use that grid to help orient yourself in the pattern and on your fabric. 

But there are other options, a few of which Crewel Ghoul shares in their post all about transferring cross stitch patterns to the fabric. 

The post includes an idea you’re going to have to see to believe, where someone used colored pencils to draw the whole pattern, stitch by stitch, before actually stitching it. 

It reminds me of printed or stamped cross stitch patterns, but very DIY. I’m not sure I could be that patient, or that accurate, but it would definitely reassure you that you’re in the right place and using the right color (as long as you keep good track of which color represented which color of floss). 

I would love to know if this is something you would try or if you have another method you use to help you keep track of where you are in a cross stitch pattern. 

Go check out the post at Crewel Ghoul for all her advice on transferring patterns to cross stitch fabric, and let me know what you think. Which methods have you tried or would you like to try?

[Photo: Crewel Ghoul]

10 Ways to Transfer Embroidery Patterns [Needle Work]

8 Ways to Transfer Embroidery Patterns to Dark Fabric [Needle Work]

DIY  Image transfer with inkjet printer [Indie Crafts]

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Toy Story Cross Stitch Patterns

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.