Retro Cross Stitch Patterns

I don’t know why sometimes random things catch my eye and I decide to do a post about them, but it gives you a little peek into my world and what I’m thinking about, so we’ll go with it.

I think the original design that got me thinking about retro cross stitch patterns was shown to me on Pinterest when I was looking for something else, and I filed it away as something I wanted to post about at some point. As a child of the ’80s I love these designs, and the colors are a lot of fun even if you don’t remember that era. Or you can stitch them for your parents LOL.

The first one was this set of retro TV cross stitch patterns from The Pixel Cottage on Etsy. It shows the test pattern, a fuzzy screen and random pixels that you just had to be there to experience. The full design is 51 by 56 stitches (or about 3.6 by 4 inches) and uses nine colors. These would be cute stitched individually, too.

Home Sewn Stitches on Etsy has another cute collection of retro patterns, but in this case its a set of six designs for a Rubik’s cube, television, floppy disk, slatted sunglasses (don’t even ask), a boombox and a cassette tape (with pencil, of course!). Each of these designs fits in an 8-inch hoop, and they’d be perfect to stitch up for your TV room.

If classic cassettes are your style, Tiny Modernist has a cross stitch pattern that is just cassette tapes with different colors. You can stitch them all together in one project or make them separately. A single one would be perfect to stitch for a birthday card for a friend of a certain age. The full design is 64 by 96 stitches, or about 4.6 by 7.9 inches on 14 count fabric.

Charts and Stuff is a small but fun Etsy shop with a cartoony style to its designs. Let’s take a closer look.

This shop’s designs are mostly silly and full of color. The rainbow colored hair is a common feature of a lot of characters, from a dancing woman to a reindeer, dogs and chickens.

As you scroll back through their designs (there are no categories but they also have fewer than 100 designs as of this writing, so it doesn’t take too long to explore) you’ll also find a series of patchwork designs that use similar bright colors but in a very different way.

For instance, this patchwork teddy bear cross stitch pattern. The pattern notes are low on details but it says the pattern comes out about 7 by 7.5 inches (that’s 17.78 by 19.05 cm) I assume on 14 count fabric. There’s clearly a good bit of back stitch involved as well as regular cross stitching.

These colorful designs would be a great way to use a lot of thread left over from other projects, because they don’t have to be the exact colors called for in the pattern. I could see the teddy bear with a ribbon that is the favorite color of the person you are stitching it for, for instance, and you can use pastels or more saturated colors, or a mix depending on what you have on hand.

In addition to the patterns already mentioned, there are a few blackwork designs, a set of season themed quotes, some word art in the shape of a heart and a cat, and some Christmas themed designs with the rainbow characters wearing Santa hats. There’s also a few of Santa riding a motorcycle if that’s something you’re into.

These cross stitch patterns are a lot of fun and look like they’d be great to stitch, so check out the pattern shop at Charts and Stuff on Etsy to see more.

[Photo: Charts and Stuff]

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