The last few months of my pregnancy left me in need of a new hobby… I was basically too uncomfortable to sleep and laying down made me barf, so I found myself sitting up in my recliner with nothing to do other than watch TV quite a few nights. I did some reading and that was okay, but an easy craft sounded like a fun way to take my mind off my discomfort and make me feel just a little productive. My normal hobby of baking was out of the question as I couldn’t comfortably stand and had no desire to eat. With the baby nursery now taking up our spare bedroom/office my sewing machine had been put away. I know how to knit, but despite the number of YouTube videos I watch on it I haven’t been able to whip up anything more complicated than a square dish rag.
In some boredom I started looking for baby room decor to buy and came across some little cross-stitched hoops that were just too darn cute, and didn’t look too complicated to make. I admittedly had no supplies to do so, and of course immediately popped on Amazon to see what I could find. I found the good news to be that starting a cross-stitch hobby is a reasonably-priced past-time to take part in, because they sell beginner kits with all the supplies you need for under $15. I grabbed one and started stitching away!
The first project I decided to partake in was a little kit that came with absolutely everything you need – the fabric, pattern, thread, needle… full meal deal! One thing I found that I really liked about cross stitch as I made it further into my project is that you can put together a relatively sophisticated looking piece in a short amount of time. Within a few hours of stitching my first stitching endeavor was coming together nicely and really clicked well with my personality that thrives on instant-gratification. After just two days of casually working on my project in my down-time I was finished, and hooked!
I started looking around for more patterns to stitch and did find a few free ones that were okay on Pinterest, but saw that this was where the hobby could get expensive. On Etsy there are patterns you can buy, but they run anywhere from $5 – $10!! On Amazon I was finding cross-stitch magazines, but $15 for a magazine only containing seasonal patterns still seemed like a lot to me. Hubby and I went to a Third Place Books in Redmond and I was happy to find a book that had a variety of patterns for all occasions on sale… some of them seemed silly and old-lady’ish, but others I liked or could see how I could tweak them and make them my own.
2001 Cross Stitch Designs: The Essential Reference Book
This lead to my next step down the cross-stitching rabbit hole, and I have been super pleased with the outcome! I decided to try making my own patterns. I found (you guessed it, on Amazon) a notepad of blank cross-stitch graph paper so you can draw your own, along with a big kit of floss in every color you can imagine. I combined this with the pattern book I found and have been extremely happy with what I have come up with so far! For starters, I thought it would be fun to make some birth announcements for my daughters that I could hang in their rooms, just a sweet little keepsake for them. I used my pattern book and combined things here and there, changed colors, and so on and just loved the result. My toddler is thrilled too, because she saw a puppy that looked like her lovey in my pattern book and demanded I stitch her one. Oooooh the things I have done for this lovey.
Cross Stitch Graph Paper Notebook: Embroidery – 110 pages – cream paper – 14 and 10 count graph paper – large format ( DIN A4 ) perfect binding
Lastly, I found this “Improper Cross-Stitch” pattern book, so I am really excited for where that takes me 😉
Improper Cross-Stitch: 35+ Properly Naughty Patterns
All the products linked in this post are the exact ones I used, so if you are interested in getting started I hope you find them as helpful as I did! And no, you totally don’t have to be a mom or old to enjoy cross stitch – so have fun with it 🙂
X.O. – Abbey Co.
*Disclaimer* I am an Amazon affiliate and get a tiny kickback if you purchase anything from my links… I only share things that I use and love, and it is just a small avenue for me to earn money to support my blog as I go.
I have been getting into cross stitch the last year and totally agree about the kind of old ladyish patterns. I’ve found some cool modern cross stitch designers but there’s a lot to dig through to find exactly what you want
Yes, I have found I’m having more fun with it now that I’m getting comfortable customizing my own patterns
Wow, look at you! Awesome that you’ve found a hobby you’re so passionate about 🙂
That’s so nice! I love it! Pretty awesome!
Adorable hobby and actually rather trendy at present. Have a ball.
Thank you! Loving it at the moment