A Beginner’s Guide to Geeky Cross-Stitching

Cross-stitch is a needle craft in which X-shaped stitches in a raster-like grid pattern build a design or image, much like the pixels of your computer screen form the image of this website. The simple stitches and structured patterning make cross-stitch both a fairly beginner-friendly craft and one particularly suited for “geekification.”

There are many places where you can buy fan-made patterns for cross-stitching, but it’s also a lot of fun to create your own, perfectly tailored to your interests and tastes. Pixel art from older video games is perhaps the easiest to convert into cross-stitch patterns, as it is simply a 1:1 pixel-to-stitch conversion, but with a little know-how you can even create cross-stitch patterns from a photo of your favorite Doctor or any other image you desire. This article will explore several options for cross-stitch pattern-making to help geeks of every skill level start stitching their fandoms.

Pixel Art

As mentioned, using pixel art from video games is one of the simplest options for geeky cross-stitching. It requires no drafting of patterns, since the image is already divided into squares of color. All a stitcher needs to do is color-match the threads and count the squares. A Google image search can provide an image from the game you want to recreate, but sometimes it is difficult to find the exact pixel art you want. A resource that has been very helpful to me personally is the Spriters Resource, which is an online community of sprite enthusiasts that have built an impressive library of pixel art covering hundreds of games. On this website, it is possible to find pixel sprites of many different characters in a variety of poses. Just zoom in on a sprite to see the individual squares of color, select matching threads, and stitch away.

Pixel art of Sesshōmaru from the game Inuyasha: Fūun Emaki. Left, a sprite ripped by Ploaj; right, my cross-stitched version.

Online Pattern Generators

Another option for beginners is to use a simple online tool for pattern generation. There are a number of websites available where users can upload an image and select the number of colors and the brand of thread they wish to use, and the site will generate a printable pattern chart. It’s very simple and works decently, though there are some downsides to using such a rudimentary method. For example, I have used My Photo Stitch, a free online pattern generator. It created a good pattern, but it also added a weird border around the design because of some noise in the image I’d uploaded. It also wasn’t very good at simplifying colors, so I ended up using the pattern it had generated with 40 different thread colors, which was a little frustrating since it meant there were some colors that were only used for five stitches in the entire pattern. The end result turned out very nice, however.

The Kingdom Hearts Cloud Strife cross-stitch I made from a My Photo Stitch pattern.

Online Pattern Freehand

Some online pattern generators also allow you to make your own designs. Stitch Fiddle has an option to create custom patterns, providing you with a blank grid and a color palette; simply click on the squares to draw your own designs. The functionality is limited unless you pay for the premium version, but if you are making a small or simple design (or don’t need tools to help draw circles, fill large areas, and so on), then the free basic version is a decent option. It would probably be easier to use with a tablet rather than relying on mouse manipulation skills.

Stitch Fiddle’s create-your-own chart designer is simple but useful

Pattern Software

For geeks who have the means and the motivation, there are also pattern-design software packages available for purchase. Personally, I use Ursa Software’s MacStitch Premium (they also have versions for Windows and iOS) and have found it to be exactly what I needed and wanted. You can upload images to it and then edit the generated pattern, which addresses the problems I have had with the free online generators. Of course, it also has the option for creating your own custom designs and includes a lot of tools to help you. There are also helpful tutorials online for using the software, though I personally have found it pretty easy to figure out on my own.

MacStitch allows for good flexibility in pattern creation and editing.

Cross-stitch is a fun hobby, and its versatility allows for such creativity. I hope this article has piqued the interest of at least a couple geeks and inspired you to give cross-stitch a try. Happy stitching!