Let’s say for argument’s sake you’re a bit of a dab hand at cross stitch but you’re a bit sick of mounting and framing everything you make. Or you’ve run out of places to put or hang them and so have all of the friends to whom you’d normally gift your work. Yet you’re not yet ready to learn something new and your compulsions won’t allow you to just stop crafting. What to do?

(I suppose I could’ve just drop the whole “for argument’s sake” bit. I just described myself. But you probably already knew that.)

Well, how about embellishing something like a bit of clothing? It’s not that much more difficult than traditional cross stitch. It looks pretty danged nice too, particularly if you’re doing two-dimensional pixel art like myself.

Now, you can cross stitch on any old fabric you want if you have a mind to do it. You can even stitch on a piece of clothing freehand if you like. Some folks can make nice straight stitches this way. I can’t, so I use something called waste canvas. Waste canvas is essentially a very loose piece of evenweave fabric. It can be used as a guide and then removed once the stitch is complete.

In this tutorial I’ll be working with another baby Onesie™. I’ll be stitching upon it the pink Shyguy from Super Mario Bros. 2. This guide presupposes that you are already familiar with cross stitch and have already found your image and selected your floss.

(By the way, I’m using DMC colors 310, 3806, and B5200 for this particular character.)

To prepare the waste canvas I’m going to cut it into fourths. This is a larger piece of canvas than I really need for a 15×16 sprite but I want to put it into a hoop to maintain tension and the smallest hoop I own is 4 inches in diameter.

Next I’ll need to find out where I’d like this Shyguy to go. Since I’m using a baby Onesie™ I like to put the stitch as close to the middle as possible. Rather than measure anything I just put the bottom part of my hoop under the front of the clothing.

Now I’ll center the piece of waste canvas I cut earlier over the fabric as best I can. I use the dark blue threads to gauge the center of the canvas as well as determine if it’s straight. Because the piece is big enough to cover the hoop and then some I don’t need to worry overly about centering it.

As stiff as the waste canvas is, and as thick as it and the Onesie™ fabric are together this step can be difficult. I take the top part of the hoop and sandwich the waste canvas between the front of the clothing and the hoop. I need to try and keep the Onesie™ fabric taut without stretching it too badly.

Now I just need to fully seat the hoop and tighten it. I’m ready to start stitching. I’ll trust that you don’t need any instructions on this part. If so, a quick search with your favorite search engine should produce good results. I posted a tutorial a while back but I’m not going to link it now because I just know the formatting has been buggered up by careless redesigns.

I’m going to want to get access to the back of the clothing, so I flip the Onesie™ over and secure it on the top of the hoop. Otherwise I’d have a hard time maneuvering the needle about.

With the cross stitch completed I’m ready to remove my waste canvas. Taking off the hoop I’m left with quite a bit of excess waste canvas. I’m going to want to get rid of this as it’ll make the next steps needlessly difficult.

Using a pair of scissors—it doesn’t really matter what type—I’ll trim the waste canvas down as small as I can. I want to leave enough to grab onto though. Just a lazy circle around the finished cross stitch will do fine.

Now it’s time to start removing the waste canvas threads. I’ve found a clean pair of needlenose pliers to be quite useful for this step. It also helps to dampen the cross stitch. This loosens the fibers and allows the waste canvas threads to slip out with less effort. Apply a moistened wash cloth to the front of the stitch. You don’t want it soaking, you just want it damp.

Start pulling out thread from one direction at a time. If your cross stitch is longer on one side than the other start with the shortest side—if it’s taller than it is wide start with the horizontal threads. Since the Shyguy is almost a square I’ve just picked the vertical threads.

The vertical threads removed, I can now pull out the horizontal threads. This is a far cry easier than the first round of thread removal. I’m even able to pull out two at a time a couple of times. Still, it pays to be gentle. I don’t want to mess up my hard work.

And I’m finished! The cross stitch is applied to the Onesie™¹ and the waste canvas is removed. I don’t have any scratchy interfacing to irritate baby’s sensitive skin. I’d probably still recommend hand washing this. I haven’t tried to machine wash them. It might work just fine, but I’d be hesitant to try.

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¹ This ™ bit is getting more than a little tiresome and almost certainly not necessary, but once I found out that they are ™ by Gerber I just couldn’t stop.

It was my wife who reawakened my love of cross stitch. Yes, I, a dude, used to cross stitch as a child. I never made anything terribly detailed nor interesting but I used to do it back in my elementary school days. So, when Staci announced her plan to make her xmas gifts this year through needlework I jumped at the chance. She ordered the Subversive Cross Stitch book and the Sublime Stitching Stitch-It Kit as well as a few patterns for each. We never got around to any of the Sublime Stitching due to limited time, but hope to start that in 2007.

As soon as I saw the blocky patterns in the Subversive Cross Stitch book there was only one thing I could think of: pixels. I grew up in front of the Nintendo Entertainment System and I’ve never lost my love of two-dimensional sprite based games. Over the years I’d toyed with a number of classic gaming projects in LEGO, in print, and in stencil. Cross stitch would be a perfect home for NES and other classic game sprites.

If you’re reading this you’ve likely seen the creations I posted thus far. You might have thought you’d like to make some yourself. Today I’d like to help you do that. Here’s how to go about making a NES cross stitch.

Find your sprite

Turning classic game sprites into cross stitch is terribly easy: the pattern is essentially already made for you. Every pixel becomes a stitch. Provided your aim is to recreate a popular game (and occasionally even if it isn’t) this is very easily done. Video Game Sprites has a tirelessly organized and complete collection of sprites for several NES and SNES games. If you can’t find what you’re looking for there, check her links or Google Image Search. One caveat about GIF files: many of them are dithered all to hell. A similar warning applies for JPG files, though not for dithering concerns. The lossy compression of JPG can lead to some awfully ugly blurred edges. Just be certain you can identify the primary color and find the crisp edges of your sprite and you should do fine.

Determine your colors

Of course, you’ll need some thread (usually called floss). But before you go shopping you’ll need to figure out what colors you need to buy. Cross stitch thread comes in a retarded number of colors, all designated by a three or four digit numerical code. Had you purchased a kit or pattern at a store you would have these numbers given to you. Since you’re striking (relatively) new ground here, you’ll need to figure that out on your own.

You have a few options in this regard. First, you could just try and “eyeball it” and take a printout of your desired creation to your local craft supply store and pick the thread that best matches it. That’s exactly what I did for my moblin design. Second, you could figure out the RGB or Hex values of your image and compare them to this chart, though this is rather unwieldy and difficult to browse. Third, you could use the counted cross stitch creator at Dark Lilac which allows you to create a chart along with color values. When stitching a game sprite be sure to enter “0” in the field that says “Number of isolated stitches grouped together that will be removed.” Fourth, you could find a computer program that generates charts. I have not tested any of these and cannot speak for them.

Personally I used the Dark Lilac creator or just trust my own eyes. Both work reasonably well for me. Be aware, that no computer application can predict with 100% accuracy how your design will look in thread. Use your best judgment but don’t worry too hard. This is supposed to be fun.

Here are the colors used for Mario in this example (all colors DMC):

• 732 – Olive Green
• 946 – Medium Burnt Orange
• 977 – Light Golden Brown

Lay out your design (optional)

Depending on how large a project you are working on you may be able to skip this step. If you’ve used an application to find your colors you’ve already done this. When working with small individual sprites I tend to eschew this step and work directly from the screen. Using Preview, I blow the image up as large as can fit on screen and count the stitches using the selection tool. If you’re working with a larger design you may find it helpful to lay it out on paper.

Any graph paper will do. You can find specialized cross stitch paper at your local craft store that is scaled to the same size as the fabric. Depending on the size your graph paper you may find yourself with a rather large pattern. I had to use 7 sheets of graph paper to lay out my moblin. Take a look (DS lite to show scale):

Our design for this tutorial is very simple, measuring only 34 stitches (pixels) by 32 stitches (pixels). So simple, I didn’t see the need to make a chart. What I did was open it in Preview and use Zoom to Fit to make it large enough to follow. It saved me some paper and some ink.

Go shopping

Once you’ve figured out your design (or designs) and have your color list prepared you’re ready to go shopping. You’ll find all the thread in sorted bins generally somewhere in the back of the store. Unless you’re a cross stitch veteran you’ll need to pick up a few more items while you’re there. Here’s what you’ll need:

• fabric — Available in a variety of colors, though shades of white are the most common. I’ve found that larger stores such as the Michael’s chain have the best selection. Cross stitch fabric has a grid-like pattern of holes at regular intervals and is marked with a stitch count that refers to the number of squares per inch. The smaller the number, the larger the square. I usually use 14 count fabric.
• needles — These come in packs of 6 or so. They come in various gauges depending on the type of needlework. You’ll want 22 or 24 gauge.
• embroidery hoop — Buy one that will fit as much of your design at once. They’re cheap. Buy two.
• embroidery scissors — Very small and very sharp scissors. You’ll need them to make a clean cut in your floss and to trim off the excess when you’re done.
• pinking shears (optional) — These aren’t cheap. What they do is cut a zig-zag pattern which reduces fraying. Unfortunately, that’s all they do. You don’t necessarily need them, but when working with a larger design that takes several days to complete you might find that the edges start to get messy. A more economical solution is to buy a rotary cutter and pinking blade. I found a set on sale at a fabric supply store and it’s terribly handy for cutting all sorts of things.

That’s really all you need and most of it is quite inexpensive. Floss is about 30 to 40 cents a skein. The hoops and needles will set you back about $1.50 to $2.00. Fabric is usually about $4. Embroidery scissors can be had for about $6. The only expensive item on the list is the pinking shears, and you can get by without them. ‘

You’ll also need:

• an iron — Unless you really like the looks of circular creases left by your hoop you’ll want to iron the design out at the end.
• gentle laundry detergent, like Woolite — It’s also a good idea to wash your creation once you’re done.

While you’re shopping, you might also want to consider the final destination for your project. Pick up some framing materials if you’re so inclined. You can also find coasters designed to hold small cross stitch or other such products.

Cut your fabric

Okay, so you’ve brought everything home and you’re ready to get started. First thing you’ll need to do is cut off a hunk of fabric. You’ll need to know just how big a piece your design requires. Most NES sprites are about 16 pixels by 16 pixels or 16 pixels by 32 pixels. If you’ve picked up 14 count fabric that means your final design will be a little over an inch width and between 1 and 2 inches high. . . roughly. To figure it out exactly multiply your pixel count by your thread count.

But wait! Don’t cut just yet! Consider a few more things. If you’re going to frame your masterwork you need to consider that most frames are in certain sizes. Think about how much empty space you want around your creation. Do you want it to take up most of the frame? Do you want it to stand alone in an empty field of solid color? Do you have an entire scene prepared? Once you’ve figured out these stylistic questions and have a size you’ll also want to add an inch or two to each side for mounting. It’s always better to cut on the generous side. You can trim the excess off at the end.

Commence the stitching!

This might actually be the simplest step. Take your fabric and fold it twice along each side so you have a crease in the center. Don’t worry, you’ll iron it out at the end. These creases will help you find the center of the fabric. It’s a good idea to start there so you know your project will fit properly.

Find the approximate center of your pattern. It’s not critical that it’s the exact center because you cut spare fabric (You did leave a 1-2 inch border on the edge, didn’t you?). Now grab that color thread. If you look closely you’ll see that your floss is made of six individual strands . You’re going to want two of those strands for cross stitch (other needlework uses more or less). Cut a length around a foot and a half and separate it into three sets of two strands each. Got it? Okay.

Starting near the center of your fabric bring your thread through from the back. Put your thread through the front again so it makes a slash ( / ). To finish the stitch bring the thread through from the back at the other bottom corner across the first to make a backslash ( \ ). When you’re done you should have an X shaped stitch from which we get the name cross stitch. It doesn’t really matter which corner you start with, but it is very important that you keep it consistent. Always start at the same corner and always end at the same corner. If you don’t, you’ll regret it when you cross stitch looks like ass.

If you’re filling in a larger block of color it’s usually most convenient to do a row of half-stitches ( / / / / / ) and then come back over them working backwards ( \ \ \ \ \ ). This way you can drop right down a row and not have a tangled mess in the back.

That’s basically all there is to the stitch. When you’re starting a new color you should hold the end of the thread down with several successive stitches so it doesn’t pull right out. When you’re finishing a color you want to wiggle your needle through a couple of previous stitches, pull it through, and trim the excess off with your scissors. Don’t tie knots!

Confused? Try watching the animated instructions at Subversive Cross Stitch. They’re just about the best I’ve found. You can find similar guides aplenty if you just search the Internets.

Clean up after yourself

One quick word for pet owners: don’t leave your needle and thread lying about. It’s all too likely you’ll end up with a perforated intestine or other gastrointestinal disaster if you do. Furthermore, should your cat get a hold of a piece of floss and swallow it do not pull it out of his mouth. It may not look like much, but that little piece of string can lacerate his poor kitty esophagus. Be a responsible pet owning crafter. Thanks.

Finishing up

Continue stitching in that manner, switching colors as needed, until you’ve completed your pixellated craft. It’s a good idea to give it a quick washing in gentle detergent and cold water. Let it dry, and then put the iron to it. Everything will look much cleaner if you do.

If you’re going to frame your handiwork you might want to look into self adhesive boards. Most craft stores have them. They’re just thick cardboard with a self-stick backing. You could use double stick tape and regular cardboard if you rather. Or find some creative new way to display your love of classic gaming.

Did that help? If you make something awesome, please share it with me in the comments or by email. Feel free to direct any questions or complaints there as well.

(01/03/2007) Added new step-by-step photos of the entire process.

(06/03/2009) Minor reformatting to fit with recent site redesign.