Guides / Getting started
Cross stitch is the easiest kind of embroidery to learn: one stitch, placed square by square. Here, in order, is everything a first piece asks of you.
You do not need to draw: you only need to count. Cross stitch is embroidery with a single stitch, two diagonals crossing in one square of the fabric, repeated until the picture appears. This guide puts in order what a first piece asks of you, from choosing the fabric to the frame, and points at each step to the guide that covers it in full.
Embroidery in general has dozens of stitches: stem stitch, satin stitch, French knots, which follow a design drawn on the cloth and want a steady hand. Cross stitch works the other way round. Every stitch is the same size and sits in a square of an even-weave fabric: the picture is not drawn but counted, from a chart where each square is one stitch. The guide on how to read a cross-stitch chart gives all its conventions.
It comes in two forms. Counted cross stitch is worked on blank fabric by following the chart: it is the common one, and the one every chart on this site is made for. Stamped cross stitch has the design printed in colour on the fabric. It is reassuring for a very first try or with a child, but the ink shows under pale threads, the printed crosses rarely sit true on the weave, and you can only stitch what is sold as a kit.
So start with counted cross stitch, on aida: its clearly visible holes do the counting for you. From your first piece on you can stitch any chart, from a book, a shop, or your own photo turned into a chart.
14-count aida (5.5 stitches per centimetre), stranded cotton, a size 24 round-tipped tapestry needle and small scissors: that is all. The guide on what you need to start says what to ask for in a shop, and why the hoop can wait.
Cross-stitch thread is stranded cotton: six fine strands in a 8 m skein, separated so you stitch with 2 strands on 14-count aida. Every colour has a number, the same in every shop: DMC 310 is black, Blanc the everyday white, Ecru an off-white. The DMC colour chart shows the whole range, and the Anchor, Madeira and Cosmo charts give each thread's match from one brand to another.
For the fabric, the fabric calculator gives the finished size and the piece to cut with its margins, and the guide on choosing your fabric explains what 11, 14 or 16-count aida, evenweave and linen change.
For a first piece, aim for a chart about fifty stitches wide with fewer than ten colours: on 14-count aida that is 9.1 cm, enough to frame without stitching all winter. The guide on choosing the size of a chart says what you gain and lose by going bigger.
Subjects are not equal. Flowers forgive everything: a petal a little wide is still a petal. Motifs and borders need two or three threads, and a small Christmas or Halloween piece takes a few evenings. Animals and landscapes need more stitches and more shades: keep them for your second or third piece.
All these charts are free in the gallery, each with its thread list. You can also turn a photo into a cross-stitch chart: the converter matches every stitch to a real DMC, Anchor, Madeira or Cosmo thread. For a name or a small design of your own, the pattern maker is drawn stitch by stitch, like squared paper.
Each step has its guide. Here is the order they come in, from the folded fabric to the frame.
At an easy pace you stitch about 350 stitches an hour, thread changes included. The table gives the time for a fully stitched square on 14-count aida; a chart with empty space round the subject goes faster.
As for cost, a skein of stranded cotton is about one euro, and every thread has its page with the price read each week in shops, like DMC 321, the red found in nearly every Christmas chart. A first motif in eight colours comes to about twenty euros with the fabric and needles. A kit brings all of that together, but you stitch someone else's design with threads counted to the last metre.
| Motif | For | Stitches | Width on 14-count | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 × 30 stitches | a card, a bookmark | 900 | 5.4 cm | 3 h |
| 50 × 50 stitches | a first frame | 2,500 | 9.1 cm | 7 h |
| 80 × 80 stitches | an animal, a bouquet | 6,400 | 14.5 cm | 18 h |
Stitching with all six strands of the skein. The crosses get thick, crowd their neighbours and the thread tangles: on 14-count aida, 2 strands are enough.
Crossing every which way. The top diagonal must lean the same way on every cross, otherwise the light catches the stitches differently and the piece looks muddled.
Knots on the back. They make bumps under the frame and can end up pulling through the fabric.
Thread that is too long. Beyond 50 cm it wears from passing through the fabric and twists: thread the needle more often instead.
Starting from a corner. A miscount at the start shifts the whole design, until it no longer fits the fabric: start from the centre.
A chart too big or too colourful. Thirty-five colours sprinkled with single stitches wear anyone down; the guide on reducing the number of colours helps tidy a chart before you start.
Tip. A miscount is nothing serious: unpick the wrong stitches with the needle's tip, or adapt the design round it. Nobody will notice a petal one square out.
Once the movement is yours, everything opens up: finer fabrics, bigger charts, your own colours with the guide on building a DMC palette and the tool that finds the nearest DMC thread to a colour. The questions and answers cover the rest, charts made from a photo in particular.
And when your piece is finished, show it among the community's finished pieces: a photo is enough, wherever the chart came from.