Stitching Tips

Before starting your design, it is recommended that you:

  • Separate all wool colours in good light before starting as some can be very close in shade. Make sure to keep the colours well separated throughout the stitching process to avoid any similar shades being mixed up.
  • Tie a small amount of each colour to the corresponding square on the right hand side of the canvas for a quick, easy reference.

What is the Victorian Cross Stitch?

  • This stitch covers the canvas well and produces thick, hard-wearing pieces of needlework with no distortion in shape.
  • Right Handed stitchers: Always stitch from right to left.
  • Left Handed stitchers: Always stitch from left to right.

All of the wool is cut and ready to use as it comes in your kit.

  • Do not cut your strands in half or try to separate individual strands.

Sometimes design colours are very close in shade. It is advisable to work these sections in daylight or use a light fitted with a daylight bulb.

If you have not used our canvas before, you might find that it feels slightly stiffer than the canvas you have used before. Try rolling the canvas up, first one way e.g. vertically and then the other e.g. horizontally, to make the canvas more malleable.

If you know you’ll be making a rug be sure to work the design from hash mark to hash mark on the canvas, our new stitch printing technology means the design is clearly marked at 160 x 160 stitches (or 164 x 164 for the Blooms designs).

  • For 16" designs, be sure to count out 160 x 160 stitches.
  • Please note that our Blooms series are charted at 164 x 164. Please disregard this if you are making a rug with these designs

When stitching the background and you come to the end of the row and there is still wool left in the needle, use it to start the next row back on the right (or left for left handed stitchers).

The design is made up of areas of different colours, some large and some small. Aim to work as much as possible of an area or block of one colour before proceeding with the next. Plan a “route” around the pattern so as to avoid having to start and finish more than necessary. Build up the design in this way, proceeding from one part of the design to the next.

If a row of colour is longer than seven or eight stitches, it should be finished off at the far end and the next row started afresh. If the gap from the end of one row of stitches to the beginning of the next is less than seven or eight stitches, then a short loop of wool may be left between them.

For areas (e.g. Leaves) with a colour running vertically, we recommend using the Reverse Stitch.

You can follow the chart and printed canvas simultaneously, our new stitch printing technology means each canvas intersection is clearly and accurately marked. Your chart card can be used to reference any colour placement you are unsure of.

Please contact our customer service department with any questions, we’re here to help with everything from technique or thread advice to placing an order and delivery questions. You can reach us by phone at +44 (0)1865 339 050, email at  or click here to fill out our contact form.