Today, I’m going to walk you through my process for custom cross stitch orders with the example project I just made for my mother.
A portrait of a woman with black and purple hair, glasses, a teal shirt, and a white necklace standing in front of a tree smiling.
Every portrait starts with a photo. Obviously, the higher the resolution of the photo, the more detail will be in the final piece because it is a lot like pixel art. I also crop the photo to fit best in the 5×7 frame to ensure the most detail as well.
A pixelated version of the previous portrait, cropped close to the woman’s face.
I then generate a pattern for 22-count aida fabric with up to 240 colors using the MacStitch program, and provide a preview PNG for approval. Once the preview is approved, I can start stitching.
An in-progress picture of the portrait being stitched from the middle out with many strands of embroidery thread hanging around the edges.
For a 5×7 picture, there are 16,940 stitches which takes anywhere between 90-100 hours of stitching depending on how many blocks of color there are. More frequent color changes will result in a longer stitching time. This piece in particular took 98 hours and 55 minutes, because I timed it.
The finished portrait wrapped around a mounting board and propped up against a candlestick on a wooden table.
Once the piece is finished, it gets gently handwashed, set on a drying rack to dry for a few days, ironed, and then mounted to a self-adhesive mounting board to be framed. I prefer to deliver the pieces just on the mounting board because it allows you to choose your own frame to match your decor.
And that’s it. The whole process takes about a month, though I have it listed as two just to be on the cautious side with shipping times and such. If you would like to order one for yourself, they are available in my commissions menu on Ko-fi. If you are looking for a different size than the 5×7, message me thereย and we can discuss what you are looking for.
Casey Kay B 