Cross and Petite Stitch Pattern: the Making

Cross and Petite Stitch Patterns: the Making 

For ages, I’ve learnt a lot about cross stitching and I can say with all confidence that it’s a rewarding and relaxing hobby. The process simply involves the act of putting stitches of specific colors on material to form an image, or rather picture. A pattern lets you know where to put the stitches, with every single symbol on the pattern representing the color to work with. As most patterns use several kinds of stitches, cross stitching is quite easy to understand and learn. However, there are five common stiches used in cross stitching – petite and cross stitches included. 

Cross Stitch is actually two half stitches that cross each other to form a little "x". It is not a big deal if the underside stitch goes from bottom-left to top-right or bottom-right to top-left, so far the bottom stitches moves in the same direction. This implies that all the top stitches will also move in a likewise manner, thereby enhancing the finished piece with a clean look. More so, when stitching, for those who have a row of stitches to do, you can initially do the bottom stitches for the entire row before working your way back to do the top stitches. 

Unlike cross stitch, petite stitch is a small cross stitch which is made on the one quarter part of a square. As a result you'll have four small cross stitches instead of one big cross stitch. Petite stitches are usually implemented using the quarter stitch; they can therefore be used for more sophisticated cross stitch patterns. Nonetheless, petite stitches are not difficult to do but they requires  an accuracy and high attention to details. To help you with making petite stitches I posted a picture of two stitches.  

The first row is stitched with Cross Stitches and the second  raw is stitched with Petite Stitches – you can see the difference. To make this difference clear I made the third row with the combination of Cross Stitch and Petite Stitches. The fourth row shows how to blend two colors in one square with  light blue and navy blue colors.  

My advice is to use a needle with a sharp tip if you prefer Aida fabric for stitching. I prefer Evenweave fabric for a such complicated design with Petite Stitches or Quarter Cross Stitches – it makes my process  much easier.

I hope you'll find this information useful when you start to learn cross stitching.t