Give the chart's size in stitches and the cloth you are stitching on. It returns the finished size, the piece to cut, the strands to use, and how far a skein goes.
A fabric's count is stitches per inch, and that one number decides everything about the finished piece: the same chart is a coaster on 18-count and a cushion front on 11-count. Worth doing before the cloth is cut, because cloth cut too small cannot be made bigger.
Every chart states its size in stitches, usually at the top; charts made here print it on the sheet. It is not a size in centimetres and it has nothing to do with the paper: a 100-stitch chart is 100 stitches wide however large it is printed.
If the label says 14, it is 14. If you are buying, 14-count aida is the ordinary place to start and the count most kits are sized around.
Aida is over one. Evenweave and linen are almost always over two, which halves the count: 28-count linen behaves like 14-count aida.
The finished motif is what ends up in the frame. The cloth to cut is what you buy, and it is the one that stops a finished piece being unmountable.
centimetres = stitches ÷ (count ÷ 2.54)
A count is stitches per inch and an inch is 2.54 cm, so dividing the count by 2.54 gives stitches per centimetre: 5.5 on 14-count, 4.3 on 11-count, 7.1 on 18-count. Divide your stitch count by that and you have centimetres. In inches it is shorter still: stitches ÷ count, with no conversion at all, which is why counts are quoted per inch. Then add the margin, which is not part of the sum and is the part people forget.
A chart of 80 × 100 stitches on 14-count aida. 14 ÷ 2.54 is about 5.5 stitches per centimetre, so the motif comes out at 14.5 × 18.1 cm, and with 5 cm of bare cloth on every side you cut 24.5 × 28.1 cm. The grid is 8,000 squares; at two strands on 14-count a skein covers roughly 1,500 of them, so the whole thing is a little over five skeins if one colour covered all of it. In practice a chart that size uses ten or twelve colours, and most fit inside a single skein.
The same chart on 28-count linen worked over two threads comes out at exactly the same 14.5 × 18.1 cm, because two threads of a 28 is one stitch of a 14. That equivalence is the most useful thing on this page: a chart sized for aida can be stitched on linen with no recalculation at all, as long as you double the count.
Aida is woven in blocks with an obvious hole at each corner, so there is nothing to decide: one block, one stitch. Evenweave and linen are plain weaves with no blocks, and a stitch can span one thread or two. Almost everybody works over two, for two reasons. A single thread of 32-count linen makes a stitch so small the needle has nowhere to go. And linen has slubs, the thick and thin threads that come with the fibre, which a two-thread stitch evens out. So a count printed on linen is not comparable with a count printed on aida: 28-count linen is 14-count aida, 32 is 16, 36 is 18, and 25 is a 12.5 that matches nothing, which is why 28 and 32 are the two that sell.
It is the smallest margin that survives everything which happens after the last stitch. A hoop or a frame grips outside the motif. Mounting on board takes two or three centimetres folded round the back. A framer wants a lip. And counting drifts: a motif that finished 2 cm off centre is a nuisance with a margin and a write-off without one. Five a side is the 10 cm this calculator adds to each dimension. For something you know will be framed under a wide mount, seven or eight is more comfortable; under five you are gambling. Cloth is the cheapest thing in this craft and the only one that cannot be added afterwards.
Two on 14-count is the default, and it is most of why 14-count aida is what kits use: two strands fill the block without standing proud of it. Three on 11-count, one on 16 and finer. The calculator applies that rule to the effective count, so 28-count linen over two asks for the same two strands as the aida it matches. Treat it as a starting point and let your eyes settle it: stitch a dozen crosses and look at them from a metre away. If the cloth shows through in dots, add a strand; if the stitches look padded and the holes have vanished, take one away. Tension matters as much as the number does, and nobody else's tension is yours.
A skein of DMC stranded cotton is eight metres of six-strand floss. At two strands on 14-count it covers about 1,500 stitches, which is the figure this site uses everywhere including the legend of every chart it produces. Finer cloth stretches it, because the stitches are shorter, and more strands shorten it in proportion, which is what the last figure in the results does. What it cannot tell you is how many skeins to buy, because that depends on the chart rather than on the cloth: a legend gives a stitch count for each colour, and it is each of those you divide by 1,500. In practice most colours in a photographic chart come well under one skein, and only the background and the bulk of the subject need a second.
This page answers what a stitch count becomes. The harder question is which stitch count to ask for, and small is not automatically cheaper in effort: 100 × 130 is 13,000 crosses, which is weeks of evenings. Detail sets a floor from the other side. An animal reads at around 70 stitches wide, a single flower at 60, and a human face needs about 120 before it looks like anybody in particular. A landscape needs a subject before it needs a width. Below the floor, no amount of fabric fixes it; above it, the fabric is the only thing standing between the chart and starting.
Three things, and all three cost people cloth. Fabric is sold in fixed pieces and the piece is rarely the size you want, so buying the next one up and keeping the offcut is normal rather than wasteful. Linen is not perfectly regular, which is the point of linen, so a 36-count piece is 36 on average and 35 or 37 in places; over a small motif this is invisible, and over 300 stitches it is a few millimetres, which is well inside the margin. And the finished piece will not be exactly what the calculator says: washing and pressing relax the cloth, a tightly stitched piece pulls in slightly, and a percent in an unpredictable direction is normal. This is a number to buy cloth by. Measure the actual work before you order a frame.
Count the holes. Lay a ruler on the cloth and count the stitchable squares across one inch, or the threads on evenweave. On aida it is easy, because the blocks are obvious. If the piece came out of a kit and has lost its label, 14 is the overwhelming likelihood.
For almost everybody, yes. The holes are visible without a lamp, two strands cover cleanly, and charts and kits are sized around it. 16 and 18 are finer and roughly twice the work per square centimetre; 11 is easier still, and its stitches start to read as squares, which suits a bold motif and flatters nothing subtle.
Always. A chart is a count of stitches and holds no opinion about cloth. The only thing that changes is the finished size, which is what this calculator tells you before rather than after.
At least 5 cm of bare cloth on every side, which is 10 cm added to each dimension. Less and it cannot be hooped near the edges or framed at all; more is comfortable and costs very little. The calculator has the 5 built in.
It is the same sum; a chart is a chart. What is worth knowing is that photographic charts tend to be wider than traditional ones, because a photograph needs stitches to stay recognisable: around 90 for an animal, about 120 for a face. Run those widths through the calculator before choosing cloth and the cushion-sized answer will not come as a surprise.
Reckon on about 350 crosses an hour at an unhurried pace, thread changes counted in. A chart of 80 × 100 stitches is 8,000 crosses, so roughly twenty-odd hours, a dozen evenings. Treat that as an order of magnitude rather than a schedule: the first hours on an unfamiliar chart are half that pace, a large block of one colour is twice it, and the fabric barely enters into it. A chart is a number of crosses whatever cloth it lands on, so a finer count makes the finished piece smaller without making it any quicker.