Cross Stitch your Clothes!

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As an avid sewer and multidisciplinary crafter, I almost never cross stitch on aida or evenweave. I prefer working on fabrics that I can sew into clothes more easily, as cross stitch is usually just one element of a project I’m working on. I also love cross stitching directly on store bought and thrifted items of clothing. Today I’m going to share with you some methods I use for doing this.

I won’t cover all the basics here. If you have never done cross stitch before, it would probably be a good idea to read through a beginner tutorial or watch a couple videos on YouTube. I think this blog post by Cutesy Crafts covers the basics. Then you can come back here and get my extra tips and recommendations for stitching on other fabrics like t-shirts and denim.

Before I get into the different methods, I want to share a couple important tips up front. These tips apply to all the methods and I don’t want them to get lost in the information below. First, watch your tension when stitching! When you are making your little x’s, make sure you do not pull the threads too tight. You want the threads laying flat against the fabric, but they should still have a bit of ‘spring’ to them. Or another word to describe it is to make sure the threads have some ‘loft’. If you pull your threads even the slightest bit too snug, your fabric will pucker, especially if you are stitching stretchy fabrics like t-shirts and sweaters.

Another tip is to be careful when you are using a hoop for this type of cross stitch. Usually you stretch your fabric in the hoop so that it is nice and snug, almost like a drum. You can still do this if you are stitching on something like a cotton canvas tote bag, but if you are stitching on stretchy t-shirt fabrics, I do not recommend pulling tight. I try to keep the fabric in the hoop at the same tension it would be when I’m wearing it. This will help to keep your stitches from puckering the fabric.

One last tip for stitching clothes is to make sure your thread ends are woven in well. I do not use knots when stitching, but rather weave each end in back and forth three times on the wrong side of my project. I have never had a thread come loose in the wash doing it this way! Here are some photos of the back of my work. You can see that I weave threads back and forth in all different directions. It looks a little messy, but it’s very secure.

Method 1 - Water-soluble canvas grid

I’m going to start with this method because it’s the one I use most often. I use a water soluble canvas from the DMC brand. You just cut out the amount you need, baste it onto your fabric with long running stitches, and then cross stitch as usual. Once you are done stitching: cut your basting threads, and soak your project in warm water for about 15 minutes. The only downside is that I can only find this product in a 14 count grid (that means 14 stitches per inch). It can also be cumbersome to baste it onto your fabric. My top tip for this is to put a hard surface between the layers where you will be stitching (I use my acrylic quilting ruler). This will ensure you don’t stitch through more than one layer of fabric. Also, baste your grid onto your project first, then add the embroidery hoop if you are using one.

I used this method to make my garden pants. The canvas is 14 count, but I stitched over 4 squares as 1, so my motifs are essentially done on a 7 count grid. This bigger grid made for pretty quick stitching. When stitching on denim I don’t use a hoop, as the fabric is already nice and stiff and easy to hold onto. Sometimes stitching blue jeans can be tricky, as it’s hard to easily access all parts of the fabric, but I think it’s worth it! In the photos below you can see that I have taken my interfacing out of its original packaging, and I store it in a waterproof Ziploc bag.

I also used the water-soluble grid to stitch this quilt square pattern onto a piece of woven canvas. This method is my favourite as I find I get the neatest looking stitches with this product. It only comes in the one size (14ct.), but that size works really well for my needs.

One last project using this method is a moth stitched onto indigo dyed linen.

Method 2 - Sulky Stick-n-Stitch with printed grid

Another good option is to make your own cross stitch grid “stickers”. Sulky has a product called Sulky Stick’n Stitch, which is a water soluble interfacing that sticks onto your fabric. You can print anything you like onto this interfacing using a home printer! So I just print a grid onto the interfacing, and then cut out the size of the piece I need. You now have a cross stitch sticker that will wash away when you are done stitching.

I created PDF files with grids in every popular size for you to print onto your interfacing. You can find those here. Just make sure you print the grid at “100% scale” when selecting your printer preferences.

Note about this interfacing: Sulky Stick’n Stich is the exact same product as Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy. The company brands the product in two different ways, trying to appeal to both home sewists and hand embroiderers. Remember, these come blank! You need to print the grid on yourself using the PDF files I linked.

I find this method is most popular with beginners and kids. The set up is so simple and satisfying! Personally I prefer a sew-on interfacing (like method #1) because I find the stick-on interfacings start to gum up my needle when doing big projects. I will still use this method for small motifs though, and it is always my go-to when I am teaching kids, or when I have a craft night with my friends.

Here you can see that I used these grid stickers for the bubbles on my river otter. I used method #1 to stitch the actual otter, but then used method #2 to stitch the bubbles and stars.

Method 3 - Waste Canvas

The last method I will share with you is called waste canvas. You baste this canvas onto your project and cross stitch as usual. When you are done you need to soak your project in water (to loosen the glue), let it fully dry, and then use tweezers to pull the waste canvas out. This canvas is sold in many different sizes.

What I like about this method is that once you have it basted onto your project, it holds the fabric night and taut. I don’t need to use an embroidery hoop when I am using this waste canvas. I do find it hard to count stitches though, the sparseness of the grid seems to play tricks on my eyes. I also don’t like how there is the added step of pulling the threads out at the end. I used waste canvas to stitch a moth onto a drawstring bag and it worked well for this project.

I hope one of these methods end up working well for you!

Free Printable Blank Cross Stitch Sheets

Some links in this blog post may be affiliate links. This means if you click through and purchase the product, I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank-you.

Sometimes it’s super handy to have a physical cross stitch grid that you can colour in. Maybe you want to design your own pattern, or test out new colours with a pattern you already have. You can also print a grid onto some Sulky Stick’n Stitch, and use this water-soluble cross stitch grid to cross stitch onto your clothes. I’ve made a blank grid in every popular size that you can download for free! I hope you find these helpful.

cross stitch grids printed on Sulky Stick’n Stitch

Note about the interfacing I use: Sulky Stick’n Stich is the exact same product as Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvy. The company brands the product in two different ways, trying to appeal to both home sewists and hand embroiderers.

When you are printing these files, make sure you print at 100% scale. Also note that while the grid goes right to the edge of the page in these PDF files, your printer will cut off a little bit on the edges. Every printer will have slightly different margins. As long as you print at 100% scale, your grid will be correct.

After printing, please double check your scale. On each PDF there is a 1” x 1” box. Measure that box to make sure it actually measures 1” x 1”, and then count the number of squares going across the box to make sure it matches your desired fabric count. For example, the 14 ct. paper will have 14 stitches per inch.

8 count blank cross stitch paper: download pdf here

10 count blank cross stitch paper: download pdf here

12 count blank cross stitch paper: download pdf here

14 count blank cross stitch paper: download pdf here

16 count blank cross stitch paper: download pdf here

18 count blank cross stitch paper: download pdf here

20 count blank cross stitch paper: download pdf here

Below are some photos showing me using the grid to stitch on a sweater. I will be writing another blog post soon with my tips for stitching on clothing and stretchy fabrics, so stay tuned! I will update this blog post with a link as soon as I have that put together.

DIY Maker's Tags

Every so often I will come across something at the thrift store with a “handmade with love” tag sewn into a seam. Seeing this instantly gives the item life as I start thinking about the makers creative process, their choice of fabric and thinking about who they made it for. In all honesty I haven’t labelled many of my makes. I don’t really like the look of most store bought labels, and while I love embroidered labels, they are very time consuming. I’ve been finding that by the time I get to the final steps of sewing and adding embroidery to a dress I just don’t have the energy to embroider a label as well. So I’ve been thinking about how I can make something I love that’s a little faster then embroidering my entire name in tiny letters. Here are a couple of the fully embroidered tags I’ve made in the past:

For the new DIY tags I decided to use stamps and fabric paint. A couple years ago I was a member at a local pottery studio and so I had a stamp made so I could label all of my pottery pieces. The stamp is made of metal and intended to leave an indentation in clay, so I wasn’t sure how well it would work with paint on fabric, but it worked great! To get this stamp made I sent an image of my name in cursive writing to this Etsy shop. The brass stamp is a more expensive option but I’ve also had acrylic stamps made from this shop that work as well. And of course you could use a simple set of alphabet stamps to spell your name out too. That was my plan for stamping the year, but my basic set of stamps didn’t have numbers included so I just used a paintbrush to paint the year on these tags. The fabric paint I used is the Pebeo Setacolor Opaque.

The stamping technique that worked best for me was using a paintbrush to spread paint on the bottom of an empty yogurt container, pressing the stamp into this thin layer of paint, and then pressing the stamp down (quite hard!) onto the surface of the fabric and holding for a couple seconds. I tried this on cotton, linen, and some scraps of Nani Iro double gauze (that’s the blue fabric). The more tightly woven and fine the fabric is, the more crisp your lines will be. After letting the paint dry it needs to be heat set, which means you need to hold an iron on it for a few minutes. I ended up adding a couple simple embroidered flowers to mine and now they are ready to go!

To sew a label onto your garment, turn each edge under 1/4” and stitch down by hand using whip stitch. Basically you are attaching them the way you would an applique patch. With thread that matches the garment and a delicate whip stitches you will barely be able to see the stitches from the right side of the clothing. Give this a try and let me know what you think! I will be labelling everything I make with these tags from here on out!

My Finished Alabama Studio Camisole Dress

This post is a part two in a series, see the first post here. Where I left off last time was right after painting my fabric pieces with the Magdalena stencil, and then testing out the couching embroidery technique on swatch. Since then, I’ve spent about a year embroidering this fabric. This was my first year of being a Mom, so most of this stitching was done while my baby was napping or while I was sitting next to him and he was doing his tummy time. Looking at all this embroidery brings back sweet memories!

I did all of the outlines first, and then decided not to cut out any fabric within the outlines. You can see that I played with this technique in my swatch, but once I finished the embroidery I just loved the way it looked. Piecing the dress together felt like it went so fast after the embroidery, so I think I ended up putting the dress together in just one week, which felt fast considering it is all hand sewing!

To piece the dress I used Coat’s & Clark Button & Craft thread in brown, and then I felled all of the seams down with a top stitch in the same thread. The binding on the neckline and armholes is sewn on using the same thread and the cretan stitch.

During construction I did end up making a couple modifications to the pattern. I never made a mock-up for this dress so I was crossing my fingers it would fit okay, luckily the modifications I made were very easy to do. I shortened the straps and lowered the armholes by an inch, which essentially just lifts the neckline as it was too low on me. I had also cut a size large from the pattern, which matched my postpartum body measurements, but I am a little smaller now so I took out a 1/2” at each side seam and also graded the waist into more of an hourglass shape. I left the extra slack in this seam in case I ever want to make this dress a little bigger again! I didn’t take too many progress pictures of these modifications, so hopefully I explained it alright!

I got to wear this dress out to dinner already. It does feel like a fancy dress both because of the heavy weight of it but also because of the shape and structure of it. The skirt really holds it’s shape well. I will definitely sew this pattern again but next time I will try with just plain fabric and adding a corset tie to the back. And as for the embellishment technique, I am very happy I gave it a try! I loved working with the fabric paint and the stencil, it’s such a great way to give yourself an outline for embroidery. Couching stitch was fun too, although I would not attempt to do it on such a large piece again, maybe just for a camisole shirt instead. Overall the Alabama Chanin style it so unique and fun to play with, I recommend taking a look at the books and giving it a go!

Adding Embroidery to my Henrietta Hinterland Dress

I posted a wrap up of my Henrietta X Hinterland linen dress that I finished a couple weeks ago. The dress is a mash-up of two sewing patterns, the Henrietta Skirt and the Hinterland Dress bodice. I chose some sweet little yellow flower buttons, and after wearing the dress a couple times I wanted to add a little bit of embroidery to the neckline. My thought process being that the embroidery would help the buttons fit in with the dress a little more naturally, so they weren’t the only yellow bits on an entirely blue dress.

I chose an embroidery pattern from a book in my collection. It’s a Japanese embroidery book by Mayuka Morimoto which I ordered from Etsy. The embroidery patterns in the book are all of whimsical forest creatures, but for this dress I just used a simple greenery pattern from the mouse page. I chose a couple shades of green from my DMC cotton floss collection, and the beads are all tiny Miyuki Delica glass seed beads, the same ones I used on my wedding dress embroidery. I traced the pattern from the book onto a wash-away interfacing (I use a sew-on interfacing). Stitching this design only took me a couple of days, and then I rinsed the interfacing away and gave the dress a final wash and it’s been in heavy rotation ever since!

In some of the photos here you can see that I added a maker’s tag to the dress, I’ll share more on that soon!