Learn to Cross Stitch: Beginner Basics

1. Introduction: Hi, everyone. My name is Gillian Gomez, and welcome to my very first skill share class. This class is going to teach you the basics that you will need to make your own cross stitch piece. It's gonna go through all the materials that you need, how to prep your materials and supplies, the different stitches you'll need. And then, by the end, you'll be able to read a pattern and have your own finished piece. You will end up with either this little pizza, booze, telly, piece, a Popsicle or a record. So I have been designing cross stitch patterns for a little over a year now on I love thesis implicit e of it that it just really breaks things down, too. The shapes, it's it's basically pixel art. It's just squares that from part. When you're up close, they are a bunch of squares, and then when you back away, you get you get great little pieces like this or extravagant huge pieces that if you go searching online, you'll find insane pieces that I mean take months and months to work on. But I like the quick, simple one. So we're gonna work on these little guys, so let's get your supplies and get started 2. Prepping Your Supplies: So first things first we need to get your supplies, so just go to your local craft store. If you have the Michael Zohra, Joan's or Amazon is great for finding craft supplies. There's a couple of other online craft places. EBay is great and even, um, there's some Facebook cross stitch groups that are just people who have Stashes and Stashes of thread and hoops that they're trying to get rid of. That will sell just bulk. So there's there's tons of ways to get your supplies, all three of the patterns that you will be able to choose from our all for three in troops . So you get a little wooden hoop like this and just make sure you get a three inch one. You could do four if you wanted to, um, but they're all made to fit in a three and troop, and then you will need your fabric and the fabric is called ID a fabric or Aida fabric. People aren't. There's a lot of discussion about which way you pronounce it. I like Aida just cause it reminds me of the musical, Um, but what it is is it's fabric that has a grid on it, and so there's perfectly spaced out holes so that your squares and your stitches will be even. This is 14 count, and that means that there are 14 squares to make an inch, so there's 14 count. 18 count 22 like there's just a bunch of different options, but these patterns are specifically for 14 so we're gonna go to the store, get a three in troop. They helps have plastic ones. There's things called Q snaps you can use, but if you want to finish this in the hoop, I prefer the wooden ones. I just think they look nicer, But there are also tons of plastic ones in different colors that can really pop it. Look fun to so three and Troop 14 Count Aida fabric. For these, you can get the pre cut six inch by six inch, and it will fit perfectly because you always want to make sure that you have a little bit of extra fabric hanging off the edges so that you could finish it, however way you want to. So these patterns, six inch by six inch is perfect, and then you will need your needle so you want to get a 24 or 26 inch tapestry needle, and there are tons of different sizes. But these are the sizes that fit best with 14 count Aida. You will also want your scissors because you're going to need to cut your threat if you start getting into it. It's always kind of fun to have your special scissors that you use for projects. It's totally unnecessary. But these air my little ones that I enjoy. And then I also have a seam ripper that heaven forbid you mess up. But I have. And I think we all have, um, but this is a seam ripper so that you can get in and get the exact ones that you've messed up on and your stitches, but we're not gonna need that were gonna pay attention and focus. It's gonna be fine, but it's nice to have on hand just in case. And then, of course, you're going to need your thread. This is my thread case is not organized. Um, if you go online or on instagram or anywhere in search for cross stitch pictures, you will see some people who have the most beautifully organized loss or threat. It's the same thing, and it's on cards and I'll show you their wrapped on cards like this. And perfectly organized and beautiful mine looks like this because I'm kind of a slough, but so you will just need the threads that you confined in the pattern. So if you go to I believe it's the third page of the pattern, you will see all the colors that you need along with their DMC thread color. So if you look on a thread like let's look at this good orange one. If you look at this one, you'll see a 741 And so when you go to your store, wherever you're going to pick up your supplies, you just go through the numbers. Find the numbers you need that are on the pattern, and then you've got everything you need. And all these patterns are, I believe, five colors or less. So it's not a lot of colors you have to worry about, which is great. So, yes, that is everything that you will need materials. Why I still go pick it up at your local store and meet me back here 3. Reading a Pattern: All right, So for this next section, we are going to pick your pattern and you will be able to find the downloads for the three different pattern options in the project section of the class and from their pick the pattern you want and we'll get started. All right, So learning how to read a pattern. So if you go into the project section you'll be able to see the three different patterns available for download. You can choose whichever one you're interested in. So we're gonna start off with looking at the pizza boost telly one. But we are going to end up looking at all three. So this is the exact file that you will have. The first page is an example of what it would look like stitched. Obviously, these air graphic stitches, but it's just a nice example. Front page, and we're gonna skip past the second page. But this is where you're gonna end up spending most of your time. But on this third page, this is what you're gonna take to the store. Teoh, pick out all of your colors because you can see the DMC thread number right here, and you'll be able to go in and just, uh, search through the numbers and get the exact colors to match my pattern. Of course, you can choose different colors if you want. You can have an abstract version of this and have purple pizza and a green TV and a pink bottle of wine. You can do whatever you want, but if you want to stick with what I've done, these are the color options. So to the second page, where you're gonna spend most of your time, this is the chart, and you're going to see a red line that goes all the way across and all the way down in the middle, and that is marking your center section, and this is where you will start stitching. You could always start right at center to help you stay really centered on your fabric. Or you can find the closest area that makes sense to start. What I would end up doing here is actually starting at this one, and so go from the center and go down one and over to so that then I would be able to do just a line across, go up, do a line across etcetera. Over. Come back down. You know, you will find your own path. It's almost like a plane snake on your phone. If you ever had one of those Nokias, um and then you'll also see. So besides that, you'll see these numbers and big dark squares on the side and these air to show you, uh, stitches in tens. So right across here, that's 10 across 10 up, which helps you when you have a lot of stitches in a row. Like right over here, you'll know that you have. Here's 10. And so you're minus one and you have nine green right here. And then you're gonna go across and you realize that you're to down. So you've got eight until you're gonna go 17 across. And, of course, you can always just count and go. 123 and just keep going with the chart. Some people like to print these out and mark with pen which ones they've done to keep them at their place. It is completely up to you. Ah, you will see French knots are up here as the pepperoni on the pizza, as well as two French knots for the cork of the wine bottle. You can do the pepperoni if you want. You can try out different toppings. You can get black and do olives. You can use the same brown that you have is the crust and maybe do sausage. You can take everything off and just have a cheese pizza and go Minimalist is completely up to you and down here, for the antenna is back stitching, which we will also go over in one of the next sections. Um, that's what that looks like. So that is Thebe pizza one. Here's the final record. You'll see. This one also has backstage Jane as well as a French not and a three court or not are not a 3/4 not excuse me, a 3/4 stitch, so it'll look very similar over here. When you see one like this, that means it's 3/4 and the French not right in the middle. You'll find your center, and I would start with one over from center and start with the music note. You should always work one color at a time, at least with smaller patterns like mine. Um, it's much easier to just do all the black of the note, Then maybe go ahead and dio the plum and then the tangerine than fill in all of that blue and then start working on your record and at the bottom, you have your color options. We've got black, turquoise, plum and tangerine for this one. So pretty simple and straightforward when it comes to reading a graph and we'll move on to the Popsicle. This one I chose, um, an oatmeal background so that the white would pop eso I You'll see in pictures and video as well that I used the oatmeal fabric. And you'll also see that we have some back Stijn right here for the letters and a French not at the end. Go ahead and choose whatever word you want or leave as just a Popsicle. You can change the colors of your Popsicle you have. If you just really like cherry popsicles or great popsicles or lemon popsicles, you can choose just one color. And Phil, listen, if you would rather have it like that, I love when people personalize and make it their own. But if you would like to stick with the more traditional rocket pop thes are the colors that I used 4. Start Stitching : All right, so let's start stitching in this section. We are going to show how to start the very first stitch. Secure your thread of the different ways that you can do your stitches and how to secure your thread when you're done with that section. So we are going to put our fabric in our hoop. So we have our three inch wooden hoop going to unscrew it slowly but surely and take it will be in two pieces, so the one with the screw is the outside piece. The smaller one is the inside piece. We'll put this to the side. We'll move our needle and make sure we know where it is. Do not lose your needle, so I'll just put it right here so I can see it and what you can do to find the center of your fabric. You can either measure it with a ruler market with maybe a pencil, but I would prefer to just fold it twice, so you kind of get that middle point. And it's just to have a basic idea of where you wanna go so you can see it's right around there and then find the center flip it over, take your outside hoop and you're just gonna push it and pull it and pop it in there. Sometimes you gotta fight it a little bit, but there we go. And it's always fine if it's not perfectly center, because when you're done at the end, you can take it out and fix it. But kind of push and pulled tight knit because you're all flat where you want it. Then tighten it back up so you can have a nice top fabric. And now we have our hope. Ready to go. So now we just need to thread are Neil. And to show you stitches I'm going to use This is my very messy, threaten drawer area. Most people keep it clean, in fact, to, uh, but I will choose. Let's go with a fun like coral pink. And so, actually, I'll show you how you get it out of the scheme. So here this is ah DMC 3801 which I just like. You'll see a lot of bright colors and the stuff I work with. What you'll do is you'll find the loose end and you'll pull slowly and I always make sure, I'm holding kind of both labels, and this is only if you're pulling it out of here. Not a few have already wrapped it, which you should do if you're organized. But if not your own craft, do it your own way. As you can tell, I do in my own way, cause it's a big mess. But pull out how much you need most people. The rule is about, um, an arm's length so you can do that. Number's gonna pull all this. I do double arm's length, then cut that and I'll show you. The reason I do double arm's length is because when you stitch you stitch with two threats at a time, most for most patterns and for all three of these patterns, that's what you'll dio. And you could either try to thread two and then have to secure the threat in the back. Or you could take just one, which is what I docu find. Just take me a second. You find one pinch the top and slowly pull, and this way it doesn't all get tangled, because when I was first learning, I didn't know this trick, and my husband and I spent the whole night trying to untangle thread so that I could make my first piece and it was a mess. And now I still have this for what? I need more and I can do the same thing. So put this to the side. I like to kind of keep I like to keep mine in a Ziploc bag just to keep all my threads together for a project. But now I am pulling my one piece of thread or floss. I'll call it by both names, and you're going to fold it in half. So you actually have your ends are together. And so it's now actually an arm's distance because I did my full wings ban. And the reason that you only do that long is that the thread will start to wear if you have it any longer than that and might break in the middle of your stitching. And that would just be a tragedy, and you do not want that to happen. So you take your needle. There's also you could get a needle threat er, which I should get, but I old school. And so I just go the route of looking here floss to get it through it all. So you're in a thread your needle right through the eye and then pull it through. So I'll see you have both breads through and then leave a few inches and pull it, and then at the other end, you'll have a folded half. Now let's go back and we'll find the center of our brown, the center of our fabric, which we talked about in the reading a pattern section. So I see my fold. It looks like it's right around here. Make a slightly bigger hole. You'll find that in the back. So there it is. Have your needle go through and then pull that and you want to make sure you don't pull it all the way through because on the back, you're gonna want to leave a hoop. You'll see a little loop right there. So leave about that much and then you're gonna go up and over, so you're gonna go diagonal. I like to go from bottom right to top left, But you can go whichever way you want. Just stay consistent throughout a project, someone to go right in there. And then I want to make sure that my needle actually goes in inside the hoop. So it was here, inside the hoop and then pull the needle through and you'll see that this actually secures the thread and then to finish off, you'll go. Either go bottom or to the side, but just either of the parts of the square that you haven't already come through and then you will pull back through on the front. You'll see you already have your half stitch. Now you pulled through and you're gonna go diagonal again, this time to the bottom left. Push through, pull through the back and you have completed a stitch. Now there's different ways to do a row of stitches. You could do all of your exes at once, or what you can do. And what I prefer to dio is to dio all your half stitches to say you have to do four coral stitches in a row so you'll go through to where you're going to start the next one. And remember, I started my first ditch going from bottom right to top left, so that's always what my bottom stitch is going to be. So I'll pull through and then I'm gonna make my half sit and I'm gonna go diagonal again and pull through. And then instead of finishing off this stitch, I'm gonna go to the next stitch over. You'll see him coming through right here, and I'm gonna make another half stitch. I'm going to go, Dick, and I'm going to keep doing this for however many the pattern requires. So let's dio two more just so you can see. So you'll again goto where you would start to keep your diagonals going in the same direction. Go diagonal, Do it. Let's do it one more time and there's no role of which order you need to do your stitches. I'd just like to It's kind of like a puzzle to me of making sure that I'm getting everything I need, but I'm using my thread in the best way I can. But I know people who are jumping around and starting over here and then going over here, and that's fine. If you enjoy it that way, do it the way you want. So then, now that we have all of my half stages, you go back up and you can complete the Rowe and then you just work your way back. This is especially good if you're designing your own patterns and you aren't exactly sure if you like your pattern yet or if you're going to change it, because then you could do the half stitches for all of your for all of one section. And then if you decide that it looks kind of wonky or you want to change the color or anything, it's so much easier to frog out. And frogging is just taking your stitches out so we'll just keep working backwards. And we have almost completed five stitches when you get to the end of a section or the end of your thread, whichever comes first and you need to secure it. What you're gonna dio is your Take your needle on the back and you're gonna have a go underneath three or four secure stitches. I get that through, pull it through, cut your thread and you have finished a rope of stitches 5. Special Stitches: And now that you've mastered the basic cross stitch, there are a couple of different stitches that you might come across that are actually featured in all of these patterns. So you will learn how to do 1/2 stitch 1/4 stitch, a 3/4 stitch at a French? Not so. I decided to switch to blue just for fun. Just have a different option and I'm gonna thread this blue. Maybe there we go. Pull it through again, just like before. We have a little bit hanging and we're ready to go So we have our row from before Now, First, I want to show you 1/2 stitch and 1/2 stitch is exactly what you think it is. So you're gonna come through the same way that you did before. We'll pull this through, going to make sure we still have a loop on the back There it iss and then we're gonna go up and over, make sure we're going through the loop Well, that through sometimes you can get caught. Just pull that around. You keep pulling that through, and there's your hap stitch. Now also, sometimes you'll get 1/4 stitch which I bet you'll be able to figure out what that is. So we're gonna jump across a couple just so that it looks a little better on the front. We'll go through the front again like we're going to start any old stitch. But this time, instead of going all the way across, we're gonna go right through the middle and you're just gonna find the middle and just puncture through and pull back. And there's your tiny little quarter stitch. You'll also need a 3/4 stitch which, if you can figure out where we're going with this, you're gonna do the same thing. We'll jump over a couple, pull through, find your centre again. So we're gonna make another quarter stitch push through. Then you're going to actually go and make 1/2 stitch across that and come diagonal with that half sich and you're half stitch. Plus, your quarter stitch equals a 3/4 stitch. Now you'll also need to know Baxter Chain, and this is just to make some lines, like in the TV antenna right here. These are actually all half stitches. But if you do the Popsicle, you'll see that these aren't going diagonal. These air going vertical and horizontal, so it's pretty easy to figure out again. I say it's a pretty simple craft will jump across a little bit so you can see. But wherever you are, let's just make a box with him. You'll just go up or over whichever way you're just gonna follow the pattern. But instead of diagonals, just go up and then you'll go over. Tour would be the end of the next stitch. Pull through and then you'll go back so that you can connect them. You could do the same with saying. Now go back down to the bottom, go over here and then again, jump up and connect your box and that is back stitching a box, and you can do that with any shape. You do the exact same thing for these what you were. Just follow the letters in the very last ditch that you'll need to learn is a French not which can actually be kind of troublesome for some people. But once you get it down, then you will be able to do them for days and days. It's just takes a little bit of practice, so we'll jump down here and what you do is you go up through where you want your French not to be, pull through all the way, and then you're actually going to pull the string with your other hand and wrap it around your needle. You can do it once, two times. I like to do three, cause I like a thick or not. So you can see the three wraps right there and then you're gonna keep it tight, and you're going to put your needle back in right next to the hole. So not where you came from, but right next to it, you're gonna pull through, and then you're going to pull this taut so that the loop slide all the way down and keep pulling. Then you will push your needle through and pull it all the way through with some out of the way well through. Pull it through. You have the French, not which is how on the pizza pattern you make your pepperoni ease if you like pepperoni and also your wine cork. So that's hear those air all French knots, and that's actually two French knots. It's also the period in cool for the Popsicle, and it's the very center of the record for a record one. And those are all the stitches you need 6. Go Forth and Stitch: and you're done. You've made your peace. I hope that you enjoyed the class and now you have the option of going down living the other two patterns and doing those as well. You can go to the store and look at all the different colors and mix and match. And you don't have to follow the colors that I chose for you and you couldn't start designing your own patterns. Go on, Etsy. Look at all the different patterns available to you. Get graph paper, Make your own. Just have fun. And I hope you enjoy your new craft.