Cross-Stitch

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Tips for Stitching Perfect French Knots

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French knots are often used in cross stitch to embellish projects, such as for eyes or to add texture to a project. But sometimes it can be a little difficult to make them just right or consistently when you’re making a bunch of them in one project.

Bluprint has a great guide to foolproof French knots from Mary Corbertt that will help you make the most of them in your projects.

The most important one if you ask me is making sure you don’t wrap the thread around too many times because they are easier to control when they are smaller. Also using a consistent number of wraps throughout the project will make it easier and make them all look good.

Check the blog post for the rest of the tips.

[Photo: Bluprint.]

Comments

  1. Sarah I have been following Mary Corbett’s newsletter Needle + Thread for years and immediately recognized her photography which you did not credit her for. It is HER article on the blueprint site you referenced. I am hoping CraftGossip will correct this and please give credit where credit is due !

Have you read?

How to Add Text to a Cross Stitch Project

One of the easiest ways to make a cross stitch project more personal is to add text to it. Whether you’re adding the names of people getting married to a generic floral cross stitch design, birth information to a project on theme with the new baby’s room or just adding a word or phrase that’s meaningful to you, adding words to cross stitch projects make them that much more special. 

But if you’re not working with a project that already has text built in, or you want to change the text that’s there, that can feel a little daunting. 

Caterpillar Cross Stitch has a great guide to adding names and words (as well as numbers) to projects, which talks you through what to consider and how to actually go about adding text to a cross stitch project successfully. 

You’ll need to think about what kind of font you want to use and if you’re using back stitched letters or larger filled letters, how much space you need and how the letters work together in the text you’re planning to make sure it’s readable. 

Their post includes common pitfalls such as running out a space or ending up with text that’s off center and how to avoid them (spoiler: chart out your text before you stitch!). 

The whole post is really helpful if you’ve never added lettering to a project before and don’t know where to start. I like to use block letters in back stitch when learning how to add text to cross stitch, but of course there are tons of lettering options. Check out this collection of cross stitch fonts if you want to see some different things you can try. 

And head over to Caterpillar Cross Stitch to get more tips for how to successfully add lettering to your cross stitch projects. They also have their own alphabet and number charts you can buy to add text to your stitching. 

Have you ever added text to a cross stitch project? I’d love to hear how it went!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]