Cross Stitch Patterns with Homespun Elegance

I’ve been choosing cross stitch pattern designers kind of at random to feature here from a list I found online, but it seems like a lot of the ones I’ve been choosing feature a lot of designs with a historic bent.

Homespun Elegance on Etsy has a collection of samplers, historic-inspired designs and projects with an old-fashioned look. Many of the patterns have the option of downloading PDFs of the charts or getting a paper pattern shipped to you, so if you’re shopping make sure you choose the format you prefer (they are separate listings).

One of my favorites is The Stitcher, which is pictured here. It’s a cross stitch sampler with a woman stitching as part of the design. This one is worked on amber cross stitch fabric to give it that aged look, and its shown in a 6 by 9 inch frame with some added embellishments like buttons and a little pair of scissors. You can embellish your project with whatever buttons you have in your stash, or you can leave it plain.

The site includes projects that are framed, pillows and other small designs. There are reproduction samplers, Christmas and Halloween patterns, patriotic and summer designs, Valentine’s Day and love projects and more.

In addition to the cross stitch patterns, the designer also sells punch needle and sewing patterns, frames and other notions such as buttons, charms, trim and other findings you can use to embellish your projects. Items are shipped from Virginia. These little bits and bobs are sure to inspire you to think about how you can add some embellishments to your projects to make them a little more interesting and give another layer of detail to your projects.

So if you’re looking for some old time, homespun inspiration for your projects, or some classic sampler projects to make, be sure to check out Homespun Elegance.

[Photo: Homespun Elegance]

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A while back I made a little rainbow cross stitch pattern and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it, so I turned it into a patch. My idea was that it could be used on a jacket or backpack, or you could add a pin to the back and wear it temporarily on a shirt or elsewhere.

But what if you want to make your design more permanent? Is it possible to turn a piece of cross stitch into an iron-on design?

It turns out yes, it is, and Sirious Stitches has done it so I didn’t have to try to figure it out on my own.

The way they did it was by using HeatnBond, an iron-on adhesive that attaches fabrics without sewing. There was still sewing involved to finish the edges of the cross stitch fabric and make it look like a purchased patch. The post shows how to do this by hand or with your sewing machine. (I just did blanket stitch edging on mine, which doesn’t look like a “real” patch but is also a lot faster.)

Once you have the patch prepared it’s a pretty easy matter of using the fusible adhesive to the back of the patch so you can then iron it onto whatever jacket, pair of jeans, bag or whatever else you might want to add it to.

I guess I’m a little paranoid about the washability of cross stitch projects, though you could hand wash anything with an iron-on cross stitch patch as you might need to with a purchased iron-on patch, anyway. But this does look really cool and is a great option if you know you want to permanently add a cross stitch patch to a garment of bag.

Get the full tutorial over at Sirious Stitches. Would you add an iron-on cross stitch patch to something? I’d love to hear what you would use this technique for!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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