Cross Stitch Pattern Designer

How to make it

1. Set up the gridEnter the width and height in stitches, choose a fabric count, and the finished size appears next to it so you know how big the piece will be.
2. Build a palette and drawFind DMC floss by number, name or color family, then draw with the pencil, straight line, fill, replace, eyedropper, backstitch and select tools.
3. Save and printKeep the design under My patterns, export a .stitch backup, and download a PDF with a key: color pages, then black-and-white symbol pages, or either alone.

Design software without the download

Plenty of people search for cross stitch design software for Mac, Windows or iPad and then hit an installer, a trial timer or a monthly fee. This designer is a web page instead. It runs in Safari, Chrome, Firefox or Edge on any of those systems, saves work in the browser, and continues to function without a connection once it has loaded once.

Because nothing is installed, there is nothing to update or uninstall, and a pattern started on a laptop can move to another machine as a .stitch file. If you already have a chart made from a photo in our cross stitch pattern maker, it opens here with the same tools, so you can refine an automatic conversion by hand.

The tools and what each one is good for

The pencil places full stitches one at a time and is where most detail work happens. Fill floods a closed area with one color, which saves time on backgrounds and large shapes. Replace swaps one color for another across the whole chart, handy when you decide a red is too orange after drawing two hundred stitches of it.

The eyedropper picks up a color already on the grid, so you can keep working without hunting through the palette. Straight line of stitches lays full crosses in one straight row from the point where you press to the point where you let go, which is the quick way to frame a sampler or rule a border. Backstitch draws thin lines along the grid corners, used for outlines, lettering and fine details such as whiskers or flower stems. Select lets you move, copy and flip a part of the design, which is how you build a mirrored border or repeat a motif.

Every change can be undone, so experimenting costs nothing. Rulers along the edge and a heavier line every 10 stitches make counting on screen match counting on fabric.

Choosing floss colors on screen

The palette picker searches all 454 classic DMC six-strand colors in our chart (the newer shades numbered 01 to 35 are not included yet). Type 310 to get black, type a name such as "Coral" to see related shades, or tap a color-family chip such as Greens when you only know you want a soft green. One pattern can hold up to 89 colors, far more than a hand-drawn design usually needs.

Screens show these colors only approximately. Two greens that look distinct on a phone can sit almost on top of each other in thread, and the reverse also happens. Keep a physical color card nearby for final choices, and use the DMC color chart to compare neighbors side by side before you commit.

A useful habit is to build each object from three values of one hue: a light, a middle and a dark. Three related shades read as form; seven unrelated ones read as noise. The full walkthrough lives in how to make your own cross stitch pattern.

Design habits that make patterns easier to stitch

Start with the silhouette in one color, then add shading, then outline last. Getting the shape right at a small scale is the hard part; a cat that reads as a cat in 30 stitches will only improve with color.

Curves in cross stitch are built from steps. A smooth curve uses step lengths that change gradually, such as 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, rather than jumping from 4 straight to 1. Zoom out often; the grid hides problems that are obvious at arm's length.

Watch for lone stitches. A single stitch of a color far from others of the same shade is slow to work and rarely adds much. Either connect it to a neighbor of its own color or change it to the color around it.

Leave room for a border before deciding the final grid size. Adding ten stitches on each side later is easy in the editor, but it changes your fabric cut.

Backstitch, strands and fabric

Full stitches and backstitch normally use different numbers of strands. A heavy outline that matches the cross weight can overpower small designs, so most charts use one strand fewer for backstitch. The table shows common choices; your own taste and the look you want can change them, and the strands and needles guide goes into needle sizes as well.

What the printed chart includes

When the design is ready, the PDF is free and complete: a cover with a preview and page map, chart pages with a symbol in each cell, bold lines every 10, two overlapping rows and columns at each page join, and a key that gives every DMC number and name with how many stitches it covers and roughly how many skeins to buy. Backstitch gets its own section in the key.

By default the file carries the colored chart pages first and the black-and-white symbol pages after them: read from the color set, and mark up the cheaper black-and-white copy with a highlighter as you go. Want only one of them? Pick Color with symbols or Black and white symbols in the PDF options. Saving the chart as a PNG is handy for sharing, and a .stitch file to reopen the design later. Need lettering? Type it in the cross stitch text generator and bring the result back here.

Planning a design before you draw

Decide where the piece will live first. A card insert, a 4-inch hoop ornament and a framed 8 by 10 each set a different stitch budget: on 14-count, a 4-inch hoop leaves room for roughly 45 stitches across once you allow a little breathing space inside the rim.

Pick the palette before drawing anything. Five to twelve colors chosen together look intentional; colors added one by one as you go tend to clash. Then block in big shapes, check proportions at a glance, and only then spend time on individual stitches. Saving a copy under a new name before a big change gives you a version to return to.