How to Cross Stitch: A Beginner's Guide From First Stitch to Finished Hoop

Cross stitch is one of the easiest needlecrafts to learn. Every stitch is the same little X, placed on a fabric that already has a grid woven into it, so you never have to draw or guess. If you can count to ten, you can finish a pretty hoop this weekend.

What you need

• Aida fabric. A stiff cotton fabric woven in squares with clear holes. Start with 14 count aida, which means 14 squares per inch. It is easy to see and forgiving.
• Embroidery floss. Six-strand cotton thread. Our patterns list every color by its DMC number and tell you how many skeins you need.
• A tapestry needle, size 24. It has a blunt tip and a long eye, so it slides through the holes without splitting the fabric.
• An embroidery hoop, 5 or 6 inches. It keeps the fabric tight so your stitches stay even.
• Small sharp scissors and, if you like, a highlighter to mark finished areas on a printed chart.

How to read a cross stitch chart

A chart is a grid where each square is one stitch. The square's color, or its symbol in the black-and-white version, tells you which floss to use. An empty square means you leave the fabric bare.

1. Find the key. It lists each symbol or color with its DMC number. In our PDFs it is on page two, with the number of stitches per color.
2. Find the center. Charts have arrows on the edges pointing to the middle row and column. Fold your fabric in half twice to find its center, and start your first stitch there. That way the design always sits in the middle of your hoop.
3. Count, then stitch. Count the squares of one color in a row, then stitch that many Xs. Thick grid lines every 10 squares make counting fast.

Our charts come in color and in black-and-white symbols. Many stitchers print the symbol chart (cheaper on ink, easier to mark up) and keep the color chart on a tablet as a picture of what they are aiming for.

Your first stitch, step by step

1. Cut about 18 inches of floss and separate 2 strands from the six. Two strands is standard on 14 count aida.
2. Thread the needle and leave a 1-inch tail at the back. Do not tie a knot: you hold the tail under your first few stitches instead.
3. Come up through the bottom-left hole of a square and go down through the top-right hole. That is half an X: /.
4. Come up through the bottom-right hole and go down through the top-left. Your X is complete.
5. For a row of the same color, stitch all the / halves first, then come back along the row with the \ halves. It is faster and the fabric stays flatter.
6. To finish a thread, run the needle under four or five stitches on the back and cut it close.

Five habits that make stitches look neat

• Keep every top stitch going the same way. All your Xs should finish with the same diagonal on top. It is the one thing that makes a piece look professional.
• Do not pull too tight. The floss should lie flat on the fabric without bending the holes.
• Let the needle hang every few stitches so the floss untwists.
• Stitch one color at a time in one small area, rather than jumping across the chart. Long jumps on the back show through light fabric.
• Mark as you go. Cross off finished squares on your printout, so you never lose your place.

How big will it be?

Divide the stitch count by the fabric count. A design 64 stitches wide on 14 count aida is 64 ÷ 14 = 4.6 inches wide. Our cross stitch size calculator does the math for every fabric, and tells you how much fabric to cut.

Good first patterns

Small designs with whole stitches only and five to fifteen colors are ideal for a first project. These are popular with beginners in our shop:

Finishing your hoop

When the last stitch is done, hand-wash the piece in cool water with a drop of mild soap, roll it in a towel, and iron it face down on a soft towel so the stitches stay puffy. Center it back in the hoop, trim the fabric to an inch past the hoop, and glue or gather the edge on the back. It is ready to hang or to give.

Ready to start? Browse all our cross stitch patterns, every one with a DMC key, a size guide and both US Letter and A4 PDFs.