I generally like to use light colored cross stitch fabric when I work, mostly because I don’t want the frustration of not being able to see what I’m doing all that well. But I’ll admit the allure of working with dark fabric is strong, because it can really make your projects pop and it’s perfect for Halloween projects or other moody scenes.
I was happy to find this post from Stitching the Night Away that’s full of tips for making it a little easier to work with dark cross stitch fabric, because using all these tips I feel like I just might be able to pull of stitching one of these projects.
I won’t spoil the whole article for you so you can still click over there and read all the tips, but I did want to touch on a couple of them. The first you can probably guess: good lighting.
In the case of working with black fabric, it’s probably not enough to use your usual lighting situation. You might need to work under a bright lamp or even use a head lamp or a reading light that goes around your neck, because it will shine down on your work and make it easier to see the holes in the fabric.
One thing the post mentions that I hadn’t thought of before is using pins to help you count. Similar to adding a grid to your fabric, which might be harder to do on dark fabric, you can use pins to mark out a section of stitching or help you count the number of stitches left blank between two areas of stitching. There are special pins for this purpose (which she talks about in her post) that are blunt so they don’t damage your fabric, but I imagine if you were careful with them you could use regular sewing pins for this purpose.
Head over to Stitching the Night Away to read all the tips. If you have any more insight into how to work with black cross stitch fabric more easily, I’d love to hear it!
[Photo via DMC]
