Cross Stitch Basics | How to Start Cross Stitching for Beginners - Ultimate Guide!

hi guys and welcome back to Kats lacrosse stick in today's video I'm going to be doing a beginner's going to have to start off cross stitching some people think it's really easy and straightforward but if you're a complete beginner it can be a bit overwhelming so in this video I will show you really easily step-by-step with clear instructions how exactly to start your first ever cross stitch project if you're new to Katz for the cross stitch then welcome I'm Sally I am the owner and designer of the business I would absolutely love you to click subscribe below and join this community I have no new videos regularly all about cross stitch time lapses blogs tutorials tips information all sorts of things cross stitch really so please do click the button and join us and if you have enjoyed this video then please give it a thumbs up below so I know to make more like this for you so to start off then we've got hair just a selection of the main things that you're going to need to get cross stitching of course you're going to have your pattern also but these are the main supplies so we've got scissors these are fish scars orange scissors which I find the best to use or the sharpest some DMC thread some DMC gold-plated needles two different types of fabric these are both spy got fabrics which I find the best brand to use and some embroidery hoops so to start off with then this fabric here is his beautiful blush pale pink is on a six inch hoop and this is a 25 count lagana even weave fabric the color is 405 by Zweig art if anyone's interested and the next fabric that I'm going to show you how to cross stitch on is going to be this beautiful cream serve I got 14 count Eider and that's in a 7 inch hoop a link absolutely everything down below in the description box you can find it really easily there are three different ways to start off cross stitching so I'm going to go through them today step-by-step so that you can see exactly what's involved and choose which one is best for you the first one then we're going to be stitching on the cream 14 count aider and this is DMC thread color eight one six which is this really rich dark red color we're going to be stitching with a sigh twenty-four needle this is by DMC and it's nickel-plated steel but the eye is 18 karat gold-plated which makes it much easier to thread your cotton through or your floss if you're in America and also it helps that thread glide easily through the eye of the needle during stitching will also be using this pumpkiny reminder I'll link everything down below if you are interested in having a look at our range of magnetic needle minders - there's also a separate video that goes through exactly what is a needle winder if you've never used one before so the DMC cotton comes in six strands but we'll only be using two strands to stitch on 14 count ADA the way I separate them and there are lots of different methods is just to use my finger to really gently peel them apart as opposed to pulling the threads out which sometimes can get a little bit knotted next you need to thread your needle through the eye I find it a bit easier actually if you almost put the needle over the thread as opposed trying to push the threads through the eye of a needle the length of this piece of thread is about the same distance from my hand to my elbow which I just find a really nice easy workable length of thread to use while stitching anything longer and it might get knotted anything shorter and you're going to run out of the cotton much quicker to start off them with the most simplest way of starting to cross stitch we're going to leave a tail of about 5 - 10 centimetres push the needle from the back of your fabric to the front in any of the holes and you're going to go down again from the bottom left over into the top right hand corner come back up through the top left hand corner and back down through the bottom right hand corner it doesn't really matter which way around you do it in terms of left or right as long as you stay consistent throughout all of your different stitches with this way of starting which just has this loose end which is a simplest we're going to try to catch the back thread so when you do your next few stitches try on the back to loop it over ever so slightly detail on the back side and secure that down using the next few stitches as you can see here keep stitching according to the pattern bottom left to top right top left down to bottom right and when you're done you can leave your needle secure on to the magnetic needle minder once you're finished with that thread or that piece of stitching in that color you're going to need to finish off the end so go round the back and simply push it through a couple of stitches to secure and trim off the end the next way of starting to cross stitch is we're going to knot the end of the thread this isn't one that I would necessarily recommend but I know lots of stitches use it and find it really simple and it's their preferred method so simply knot the ends of the thread again you're using two strands a smallish not as small as you can get away with really and we're starting again so pushing it from the back of the fabric to the front first of all in the bottom left hand corner of one of these squares on the grid and down through the top right hand corner here you can see that I'm doing what are called half stitches so really it's just half of a cross it's just one diagonal stitch so sometimes a pattern might call for half stitches in particular caterpillar cross stitch patterns tend to only use whole stitches because it's the easiest but sometimes just check on the pattern you will see a symbol that looks instead of an X more like this type of a stitch or even if the pattern calls for full stitches you might want to do a larger section in half stitches particularly if you're going horizontally in a row or vertically in a column and then go back over them in the same direction to finish off the final cross stitch but just again make sure that they're all consistent in terms of which angle you're coming down across for the top half stitch if that makes sense so you can see here they're all pointing to the right and when I'm coming back over to them back over them and when I'm coming back over them to make the final cross and they are all pointing to the left-hand side coming down in the top left hand corner to finish off again once you've completed that section of stitching same method just simply push the needle through really they I would say at least two of the stitches on the back pull it through that secures it nicely and then trim it off pretty much as close as you can get away with to the stitches because that way you're not having a long tail hanging around on the back which might then get caught when you're doing some more stitches using a different color thread next the next way we're going to learn to start off cross stitching is using the loop method this time we only need one of the six strands of thread so again I'm just running my finger down here really slowly and carefully to separate out the strands but this time I'm looping both of the ends of the cotton around together holding those nicely together and in the other end is a loop it does what it says Martin so thread both of those two ends through the eye of the needle pull it down a bit but you're going to leave a gap so you've got the loop on one end and your two ends on the other start at the back as before come up through the bottom left hand corner but leave that loop hanging at the back come down through the top right hand hole and once you're in the back push the needle through the loop and it will secure it's so beautifully to the back and you're not wasting any thread whatsoever it's completely secure you're not worrying about having to then anchor in the remaining tail and you're not having to worry about any knots on the back you can see here I'm stitching a row of three half stitches and going back over them bottom right to top left in a left diagonal stitch to make them complete stitches you'll see on the final third stitch I actually come up through the top left and down through the bottom right it doesn't really matter as long as the stitch is going in the same direction to make sure they're consistent because once you've got a huge patch of them in the same color if the patterns larger it will catch the light and it will be a little bit noticeable if you've chopped and changed throughout the pattern again just to finish off push the needle through a couple of the back stitches and trim it off and it's nicely secured and you can see on this purple one that you've probably used the least thread and it's the neatest on the back it's the smoothest on the back so definitely loop method to start cross-stitching would be the one that I recommend if possible and there you can see the finished three different ways of starting to cross stitch on the 14 can ADA next I'm going to show you quickly how to use an embroidery hoop so place the smaller hoop on the on the base of your table or whatever you're using put your fabric on top and then the slightly larger outside hoop on top of that push it down make sure you've got enough room by turning the normally gold screw at the top and then slowly tighten it up once it's in position and very gently ease out pull out some of the excess fabric just make sure that it's nice and taut and it's got the same tension across the whole thing so it'll be much easier to stitch on once you're satisfied that it's in the right position turn the screw as much as you can without being too aggressive and make sure it's all securely in place some people like to stitch on the top of the hoop like I'm doing here but equally some people turn the hoop the other way around and stitch using it a bit more like a bowl shape either way is absolutely fine and it just helps really holding onto the hoop so you're making sure no grime or dirt or anything from your hands or at least limiting it is getting onto the fabric so here this is how to stitch on even weave fabric this is 25 count even weave fabric and again we're using a size 24 needle we're using this beautiful color 995 DMC 995 thread which I think will show up nicely against this blush-pink and coming up in the bottom left hand corner now with even weave we're stitching two over two which means we're using two strands of thread in the needle and we're stitching over two strands within the fabric so coming up in the bottom left hand corner and going down in the top right hand corner but it's not the next hole along its the one after that so in between the bottom left and the top right there are actually two very tiny strands of the fabric in between those two coming up in the top left and down in the bottom right again as we did before on the AIDA you'll see that these stitches are ever so slightly larger than the ones on the 14 count Eider because 14 count Eider is the equivalent in terms of stitch size as 28 count even we've said the 25 count even weave the stitches that are produced on there it's a little bit more like a 12 count or 13 count a de type size some people absolutely love even weave fabric and won't stitch on anything else personally I think 14 count EDA is the easiest type of fabric to start stitching on for beginners but really is just personal preference some people switch between the two types and some people will always stick with one and never divert from that I have to say that the overall finished effect when cross stitching on evenly fabric is way more delicate its finer and I think it has more of an old-fashioned vintage feel to it and on this one I'm using the deck the halls' gingerbread man magnetic needle minder thank you so much for watching guys I hope you've enjoyed this video don't forget to click subscribe below and also give the video a thumbs up and I'll see you next time bye

Channel: Caterpillar Cross Stitch

Views: 343,039

Rating: 4.8989739 out of 5

Keywords: cross stitch, x stitch, flosstube, cross stitching, crafts, needlecraft, how to cross stitch, cross stitch basics, cross stitch for beginners, how to start cross stitch, cross stitching on aida, cross stitch on evenweave, how to use an embroidery hoop, how to use a hoop for cross stitch, loop start cross stitch, how to finish off cross stitch, cross stitch tips, cross stitch fabrics, needle minders, what is cross stitch, cross stitch embroidery, sewing, xstitch, needlepoint

Id: u6pmb-myRKc

Length: 12min 15sec (735 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 12 2019