Cross-Stitch

Charts, patterns and everything needlepoint

Tips for Traveling with Cross Stitch

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As a person who is mostly in the knitting world, it comes up fairly often that people will have questions about traveling with knitting and whether knitting needles and other supplies are allowed on airplanes. (The answer is generally yes, but it’s somewhat up to the discretion of the flight agents whether items are truly allowed.)

I haven’t heard a lot of people question whether cross stitch supplies are allowed on planes, though sewing needles are generally sharper than knitting needles. As far as I know there’s nowhere you can travel by plane that wouldn’t allow you to carry sewing needles. Scissors may be a different story. 

The rules in America are that scissors shorter than 4 inches/10 cm from the pivot point (where the two blades join) are allowed in carry on luggage, and scissors of any length are allowed in checked bags. In the UK the measure is 6 cm, or about 2.5 inches. 

One rule that trips some people up in the States is the fact that while scissors are allowed, cutting tools that include blades are not allowed in carry on luggage. Those thread cutters that look like pendants? Technically not allowed. I guess the idea is they could be taken apart and then you’ve got a blade. So your best bet is to stick with small scissors or even fingernail clippers on the plane. 

Caterpillar Cross Stitch goes into greater detail about how to travel with cross stitch supplies, alternatives to scissors, tips for packing and what to do if an agent confiscates your supplies. They’ve also got tips for the things you might want to include in your travel cross stitch kit and etiquette tips to ensure your stitching doesn’t annoy other passengers. 

Have you ever traveled by plane with your cross stitch or embroidery? I’d love to know if you have any tips to add to this collection! Check out the post at Caterpillar Cross Stitch for all the details. 

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

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Toy Story Cross Stitch Patterns

I’m going to go ahead and admit that I totally missed Toy Story 4, so it took my by surprise when Toy Story 5 came out, but let’s celebrate with some Toy Story cross stitch patterns. 

This sweet design including Woody, Buzz and Jessie is from The Xstitch Shop, and they actually have a few different Toy Story options. This one says it is for intermediate stitches, probably because of the size and number of colors, but the sales page doesn’t say how big it is or how many colors it uses. It’s still cute, though!

If you’ve got a fan of Jessie in your household, this collection of Jessie themed icons is super cute to stitch. The design is from Mercury Stitches and it measures 97 by 144 stitches. that comes out to 6.9 by 10.3 inches, or 17.6 by 26.1 cm, and uses 11 colors. It has full and half cross stitches, as well as back stitching and French knots. 

Share the love of friendship with this sweet Woody and Buzz heart hands cross stitch pattern from Pixell Patterns. This design uses eight colors and is shown worked on 14 count fabric, but the notes don’t indicate how bit is is (based on a finished project photo, though, it looks pretty big). 

And for the Buzz Lightyear fans, of course we have to have a “To infinity and beyond” pattern, so here’s one from Silver Lake Stitches. This design is super cute on blue fabric, but use whatever you have. It measures 78 by 92 stitches, which comes out to 5.6 by 6.6 inches, or 14.2 by 16.7 cm, on 14 count fabric. It calls for 14 colors. 

Or if you want to go beyond the core three main character toys, check out this project from ThreeOOne Patterns, which includes our main toys as well as Bo Peep and her sheep, Bullseye the horse, the Slinky dog, Rex, Ham, the Potato Heads and an alien. The design is 310 by 80 stitches, which comes out to 21.14 by 3.5 inches, or 53.7 by 8.9 cm, when worked on 14 count fabric. It uses 65 colors. Or pick out your favorite characters to make a smaller project. 

All those characters and a few more are found on the mini Toy Story character sampler from Knotalot UK (only part of which is shown above). This one uses 31 colors and measures 134 by 108 stitches. It includes whole and fractional stitches, as well as back stitching. On 14 count fabric stitching the whole thing would make a project that’s 9.57 by 7.71 inches, or 24.31 by 19.59 cm.