Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Small Halloween Cross Stitch Patterns

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These mini Halloween cross stitch patterns are a great way to add to your holiday decor in a hurry. 

The 28 tiny Halloween cross stitch patterns set from Aliton Embroidery includes all sorts of fun designs, from mushrooms and cats to a plague doctor,  witch hat, bat and ghost. The designs vary a bit in size but the biggest ones are 20 by 22 stitches, which makes them 1.4 by 1.6 inches, or 3.63 by 3.99 cm, when worked on 14 count fabric. Most ot he projects use three or four colors, but there are 22 colors used across the whole set. 

Another great set of tiny designs comes from LaSelva Design. This set has 10 patterns, including a spider, ghost, skull and creepy, bloodshot eye. The largest one of these is 18 by 18 stitches, and all of them fit on 1.5 inch button covers.

This spook sampler from ONESEO is shown as one big piece but you could easily stitch the ones you like individually. Each little patchwork inspired design is the same size, and the full piece is 200 by 200 stitches, which makes each square a little smaller than 50 by 50. You can stitch a spell book or the full moon, an lantern or a pumpkin house, to name a few. In all the design uses 24 colors, and on 14 count fabric it comes out to 14.3 inches or 36.3 cm square. 

These cute mini stamps are also shown as one design you can easily be broken up if you want a smaller project. This one is from And Wabi Sabi and includes a bubbling cauldron, crystal ball and coffin. The full design is 72 by 84 stitches, but each individual design would fit in a 3 inch hoop when stitched on 14 count fabric. The full design uses 15 colors. 

Or there’s this little ghost from XCross Stitch PatternX, which fits in a 5 inch hoop. This one is 51 by 57 stitches and uses 12 colors. On 14 count fabric it measures 3.64 by 4.07 inches or 9.25 by 10.34 cm. 

Have you read?

How to Cross Stitch on Paper

I’ve done embroidery on paper before and it’s a lot of fun. You can use a needle to punch out a particular shape to stitch, or my favorite thing is to take a copy of an old photograph or a page from a magazine and add stitched details to the original picture. 

One thing I haven’t tried but would also be fun to do is cross stitching on paper. 

This is a technique that requires a fair amount of preparation because you need to find a pattern you can easily transfer and print it at actual size, then use the pattern itself to help you decide where to put the holes in your paper. And then after all that you can do your stitching. 

It’s a pretty straightforward process, but Crewel Ghoul has a great tutorial that walks you through how to do it step by step. It even includes a sample pattern you can print out and try for practice. 

The post also has tips for starting and finishing your threads so that the back looks as neat as it can, if that’s something that’s important to you. (When I have done embroidery on paper I usually just tape the thread end to the back. If the back were going to show I’d probably just cover it with more paper.)

Stitching on paper is a fun way to make bookmarks or greeting cards, but you also need to make sure your paper is thick enough to support the holes you’ll be making in it. This post has a good rundown of materials you’ll need and what kind of paper is best. She used watercolor paper but I’ve used card stock and scrapbook paper that was a little thicker than the average printer paper. 

You can always test a little on the paper you’re considering to make sure it will stand up to the project. 

Check out the post, which includes a video, over at Crewel Ghoul for more tips for cross stitching on paper. Is this something you’ve tried before? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Crewel Ghoul]