About the Cross Stitch Family
Cross stitch is probably one of the simplest and the oldest surviving stitches. This very popular stitch has given rise to many traditional embroidery styles across different cultures around the world. Usually, cross stitch is done over countable even counted fabric (aida fabric) to produce wonderful designs and patterns. Yet, we can manage to do it over normal fabric as well. Cross stitch dates back to the 5th century AD. It is believed that the popularity of ‘Blackwork’- another embroidery style of yesteryears- paved the way to the development of cross stitch. Cross stitch can be seen to be used exclusively or as a part of traditional embroidery styles around the globe.
Cross Stitch Family in embroidery
Many embroiderers started their journey into Hand embroidery with Cross Stitching. This embroidery form uses Cross Stitches to fill in the pattern cell by cell. In surface embroidery, this stitch can be used as an isolated stitch or placed together to form patterns or create fillings. Cross Stitch is probably the first step into Needlepoint. It can also be used to stitch pieces of fabric together, much like the Herringbone Stitch. The edges of thick fabric can also be secured using the Cross Stitch.
Cross Stitch Family
Learn 306 stitches categorized in 20 Stitch Families from our 600-page eBook.
Sarah has been researching and sharing hand embroidery lessons for over 17 years, making it accessible to everyone around the globe.
Here in the USA, waste canvas can be found at JoAnn, Michaels, some WalMart stores and probably at Hobby Lobby.
My daughter-in-law made me a sweatshirt with Grandma done using waste canvas.
Chicken Scratch was taught to me in elementary school … and my little blue and white gingham apron shows all my tiny stitches – I wore the apron as part of my costume in an off-off Broadway play! The Chicken Scratch was done with red floss.
Do you happen to still have it? It will be beautiful to see a photo of it if it is okay with you. 🙂
Hi Shipra,
Thank you for your lovely words. It’s always keeps us encouraged. 😊
Waste Canvas is one of the best ways to do cross stitch over plain fabric. You can find it in Amazon. I purchased a set for myself from there. I will admit that it is expensive.
Traditionally, a mesh cotton fabric was used to do counted embroidery. It would be more or less same as the sieving fabric. The threads of this ‘mesh’ were later pulled out once the project finished. Not so sure how easy it is these days to get hold of such a mesh fabric since such hand embroidery work has declined from the general public’s interest. If I get more information on it, I will surely share with you.
❤️ Sarah
Thank you so much Sarah. Appreciate your replying back. Let’s see if I can get some waste canvas myself.
You are welcome, Shipra. Recently one of my friends managed to get something similar to the Waste Canvas in a shop that deals with embroidery stuff. She said they called in matty cloth, but it is really spaced, made of cotton, is stiff and would work perfectly as a waste canvas.
Hi Sarah,
I have been following your embroidery blog. Being an embroidery enthusiast myself, I must say you have put in a commendable amount of work. I had one query. How can cross stitch be done on regular cloth….that is not Aida. I have been raking my brains but have been unable to find a solution to it.
Seen some videos using waste canvas…but this is very difficult to find in India. So what is the alternative to this, can you advise something.
Thank you
Regards
Shipra Alam