Tips for Stitching on Black Fabric

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]

I just can’t resist sharing a few more Halloween cross stitch patterns when they are as cute and quick to stitch as these!

This boo cross stitch from Luzatolye was the first little Halloween cross stitch pattern to catch my eye. I love the pumpkin Os! At just 23 by 8 stitches and using four colors, you can stitch it up in no time. On 14 count fabric it measures 1.6 by.5 inches, or about 4 by 1.27 cm.

Another cutie from the same designer is this jack o’lantern with a witch hat. Another four-color project, this one is 14 by 18 stitches, which is an inch by just a little more than an inch, or around 3 cm square, worked on 14 count fabric.

If you like your minis a little bit bigger, this jack o’lantern with leaves is from White Protea Art and measures 47 by 28 stitches. That comes out to 3.4 by 2 inches, or 8.5 by 5.1 cm, when stitches on 14 count fabric. It uses nine colors.

Or there’s also this little cutie from that same designer. I love the little leaf on top of the pumpkin. At 33 by 36 stitches, it comes out to 2.4 by 2.6 inches, or 6 by 6.5 cm, when stitched on 14 count fabric. I think it uses around eight colors.

Template Love Create also has two mini jack o’lantern cross stitch patterns that I like (I swear I didn’t plan to do two from each of the same designers, it’s just the whimsy of an Etsy search!). There’s one that is more round and one that’s oblong, which I like because it’s different from most of the pumpkin patterns you see. The pattern listings say both are six colors (though they look like four to me) and 28 by 28 stitches, but I don’t think that can be true. Either way they both fit in a 3 inch hoop and would be a super cute little addition to your Halloween decor.

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