Cross stitching is a fun and easy craft to learn. This tutorial will teach you the basics and provides a cute free pattern to follow.
To start, assemble your materials. For this project you will need a 5.5″ by 5.5″ piece of 14 count aida cloth, a 4″ embroidery hoop, DMC embroidery floss, a tapestry needle, a pair of thread snippers, and your FREE PATTERN.
Embroidery floss skeins come with 6 strands of floss twisted together, for cross stitch on 14 count aida cloth you will be stitching with two strands. First you will cut an approximately 12″ long piece of floss. Then divide out two strands and thread them on to your tapestry needle.
Cross stitch charts are divided up into a grid of squares. Each floss color is represented by a symbol, and there is a color table which shows you which symbol represents each color.
When you follow a cross stitch pattern, you begin at the center of the pattern and fabric; that way your cross stitch will be centered properly in your embroidery hoop. I started this pattern using color 437, tan. Counting out and up from the center of the pattern I reached the point that the tan starts at on the pattern.
Aida cloth is a block weave fabric, which means there is a hole at the corners of each block. One block will equal one square on the chart. First you will start at the back of the fabric and come up through the hole in the lower left corner, and then down through the hole in the upper right corner.
When you are starting a new floss you will need to secure the tail on the back of the fabric. In cross stitch you never want to knot the floss, instead you will leave a tail on the back that will be secured when the initial stitch has been crossed. After you enter the aida cloth from the front of the fabric shown above, you will then come back through using the lower right hole. From the back this will cause the floss to cross over the tail securing it in place.
This is what your secured tail will look like.
Back on the front side of your aida cloth, you will complete the stitch by entering the top left side hole.
Your completed stitch will look like this! The most important thing to remember when cross stitching it to make sure all of your stitches are crossed in the same direction: bottom left corner to top right, then bottom right corner to top left. This way all your stitches will be even and clean.
Continue stitching using your pattern as a guide.
First color done! Now you will need to secure your floss.
Whenever you finish a piece of floss you will need to secure it, much the same way as when you start a new piece. You will weave the tail under a completed stitch on the back side so that it is secure. Then clip your floss.
Your secured tail will look like this.
Now continue following the pattern color by color until you image is complete!
When you are all finished you can frame you cute little cupcake!
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