Real Witch Cross Stitch Patterns

Halloween is all about spooky stories and dressing up as characters like witches, but the history of witchcraft has a real lineage that comes down from Salem and even further back that also should be acknowledged. Whether you consider yourself a witch or just want to give a more historic slant to your Halloween decorations, check out these great cross stitch patterns inspired by real witches.

First up is this design from Little Stitcher Shop about historic witches and their familiars. The designer notes that these women — Alice Kyteler, Alice Nutter, Isobel Gowdie and Martha Carrier — were accused of witchcraft in different countries and times, and most of them were killed for it. The familiars shown were either actually associated with them or an animal that might have been linked to them at the time and place they lived.

Speaking of historic witches, Night Spirit Studio has a series of patterns inspired by woodcuts of witches and demons from a book published in 1720. This one is “The Devil’s Flight,” which shows a demon and witches marauding in the night. This pattern uses a single color and measures 136 by 107 stitches. It comes out to 9.7 by 7.6 inches, or 24.7 by 19.4 cm, on 14 count fabric.

The witches sampler from Contrary Peri brings a classic look to a more modern project. This one is also a single color project, and the designer recommends using 18 count fabric, which will come out to 9 by 11 inches, 22.8 by almost 28 cm. It measures 162 by 198 stitches.

Giving house rules a witchy twist, there’s this wisdom of a witch pattern from The Crafty Grimalkin. It includes good advice for witches and others, like love the earth and follow the phases of the moon, and is decorated with familiar animals and pumpkins. If I’m reading the notes properly it uses eight colors. It measures 156 by 208 stitches and the designer recommends 32 count linen for stitching.

The cross stitcher behind the blog Sirious Stitches is quite into biscornu.

If you’re not, a quick primer: biscornu are three-dimensional cross-stitched objects with eight points, often with an indention in the middle that makes them look a bit like doughnuts without the hole. They can be just about any size and subject you can think of. They’re often used as pincushions but can also be seasonal decor or just decoration for any time of year.

I’ve got a collection of biscornu cross stitch patterns here.

Once you’ve stitched one or several (they are a little addicting) you might wonder what you can add to them to make them even more extra.

It very much depends on the design of your biscornu and the look you are going for, but Sirious Stitches has a great post all about some of the options you might consider.

I don’t want to give you the whole list because you need to go visit and see all of their great biscornu they’ve stitched, but one really easy thing that you can do with a lot of designs is take advantage of that center indent by adding a button, beads, silk flower or another embellishment.

This is great to do just with a basic button from your stash that coordinates with the design and colors of the cross stitching, but it’s extra fun if you have a button that’s on theme, such as a leaf for a fall biscornu or a flower shaped button for a floral design. Add a jingle bell to a Christmas pattern, or a charm if you don’t have a button that coordinates.

Just this one idea is sure to get you thinking about ways to embellish biscornu (not to mention other cross stitch projects) but head over to Sirious Stitches to see all of their ideas for embellishing biscornu to make these already fun projects even more fun.

Have you ever made biscornu? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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