Cross Stitch

Again, I am continuing putting up various Christmas gifts, so today, I will be showing you how to cross stitch, like a phrase or picture that I made for my mom. 

So before you begin, you will need embroidery floss in all the colors you'll be using (each one is about less than a dollar), an embroidery hoop, cross stitch fabric, and a needle. Also, it is very helpful and pretty much necessary unless you've done this like a million times to have a pattern. I just found mine on Pinterest. 

To start, put your fabric in your hoop by unscrewing the outside hoop, and put it on top of the fabric, with the other hoop on the bottom. Stretch out the top hoop over the inside hoop, sandwiching the fabric, then screw the hoop tighter to secure it. Now open your thread. It is 6 strings together, but you only need like 2 at a time, so cut off a long string, then pull the 2 to seperate it from the other 4 while holding both sides. Now thread it through your needle, and knot one end by wrapping it around one finger three times, then rubbing it off and pull tight. 

On to the cross stitching. For those brand new beginners, the cloth is made up of squares. There are holes in each corner of each square. What you do is start on the bottom side of the fabric, and go in one of the holes (bottom left corner of a square), and out the top right square making a diagonal line. Then go up into the bottom right corner and down into the top left corner. That is completing an X. Every cross stitch design is made up of X's. To make lines, just make a bunch of diagonal lines on top of eachother, then go back down and cross all of them at the same time. Here's where the patterns come into play. If you have a cross stitch pattern to follow, it shows you what holes to put the needle in to create your desired shape. Here are the ones I used. 

If you run out of string (which you will many times) just tie it off, then cut off another piece and start again by knotting the end etc.. Only thing to know is that it takes 4 EVER!!! I couldn't find the one I made my mom, but here's a picture of one my mom made so you could see what cross stitching looks like.