Cross Stitching Help Please

[jnjusoioa]

When I go down for my next trip, I would like to take along pieces of aida cloth for the characters to autograph and then when I return home to cross stitch over the signatures, I was just wondering if anyone had ever done this and if so how did it go? Also was wondering what do you think would be best to use to have the characters sign it? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

[NIK]

We did a similiar thing with T shirts at school although we used smooth fabric and chain stitched them rather than cross stitch.

What I would suggest is that you use even weave rather than aida - a bit easier for the characters to write on. A fabric pen which you can get from the same place you get your stitching supplies would be a good option. It washes out once you have stitched the design but stays bright until you are finished. it'll also write better than an ordinary pen - its more like a felt tip than a hard ball point.


I would recommend stretching the fabric over a piece of card or something and lacing it at the back to keep it taut. They'll find it easier to write on. Then you can remove it from the card when you are ready to stitch it and off you go.

What are you going to do with it when you've finished? Why not try using a T shirt and doing chain stitch over the sigs?

 

[jnjusoioa]

We did a similiar thing with T shirts at school although we used smooth fabric and chain stitched them rather than cross stitch.

What I would suggest is that you use even weave rather than aida - a bit easier for the characters to write on. A fabric pen which you can get from the same place you get your stitching supplies would be a good option. It washes out once you have stitched the design but stays bright until you are finished. it'll also write better than an ordinary pen - its more like a felt tip than a hard ball point.


I would recommend stretching the fabric over a piece of card or something and lacing it at the back to keep it taut. They'll find it easier to write on. Then you can remove it from the card when you are ready to stitch it and off you go.

What are you going to do with it when you've finished? Why not try using a T shirt and doing chain stitch over the sigs?

Thank you for your help, it is very helpful for me, I have never heard of the even weave but will look for that. What I planned on doing was framing them along with a photo of the character then. Also what is a chain stitch exactly. Do you have a photo of the shirt you did, that may help me, as I am more of a visual learner. Thank you so much.

 

[NIK]

Even weave is similar to aida. It's smaller count and normally you stitch over two threads - it's a linen type fabric. You can buy 28 count linen which gives the same count as 14 count aida. I'll try and look out an image of chain stitch for you. It's quite a simple stitch to do thank goodness but you can get a smooth curve on lines which works well for signatures and script. Can you PM me your email address so I can send it for you. Unfortunately I only have limited access to the internet and can't access any of the usual sites to upload a photo but I should be able to email it to you if that's okay.

 

[NIK]

I had another thought about this one last night. If you master chain stitch and you are planning to make a picture of the signatures, you can use any fabric you like and any pen really that you like. You only need use a washable pen if you were doing it on t shirts and the like. You won't need to worry about washing out penmarks if it's something that's going to be framed/hung on a wall.

Smooth cotton might be easier for the characters to write on than either evenweave or aida.

Worth a thought

 

[UP Disney]

I was going to suggest the same thing. When I was in high school, my mother had me get signatures of all my friends on one piece of material. She then chain stitched them. It was really easy to do but took her forever because I got about a 100 signatures.

http://inaminuteago.com/stitchdict/stitch/Chain.html

http://www.heritageshoppe.com/heritage/stitches/chainstitch.html

The advantage is that you can use any material desired. After reading your idea, I am thinking about doing this for my kids during our next trip. I'm not much of a sewer but I can do the chain stitch!

 

[mblake214]

Did you collect signatures? How did that work for you?
Thanks Erica