Cross stitch guide
Machine cross stitch
Yes, an embroidery machine can sew crosses. It does not read a chart or count the cloth: it follows a stitch file in which every cross has already been placed. A cross stitch pattern has to be turned into such a file first, and the patterns on this site are charts for stitching by hand.
On this page 6 parts
Can an embroidery machine cross stitch?
It can sew embroidery that looks like cross stitch. A computer-controlled embroidery machine holds the cloth taut in a hoop, moves the hoop under the needle and sews wherever its file tells it to. If the file is a field of small X shapes, the result reads as cross stitch (2 in the picture).
What the machine cannot do is work from a chart. It does not see symbols, and it does not count the blocks of Aida the way a stitcher does (1). Every cross has to be placed for it beforehand, in a file.
What a machine cross stitch design is
A machine cross stitch design is a stitch file: a list of needle movements and color changes. It is not a picture and not a chart.
- It comes in a machine's own format. Each make of machine reads certain file formats, known by short names such as PES, DST, JEF and EXP. A design has to be in a format your machine reads.
- It has a size of its own. The size of each cross is set when the file is prepared, and the whole design must fit inside the machine's hoop.
- It can hold more than whole crosses. The programs that prepare these files offer half, quarter and three-quarter crosses and thin outlines, like the fractional stitches and backstitch of hand work.
Files like this are sold as "machine cross stitch designs" or "cross stitch embroidery designs". They are for a machine only. A stitch file cannot be printed out and stitched from by hand.
Why a counted chart is not a machine file
A counted chart tells a person which color goes in which square. The person supplies the rest: where the needle comes up, which leg goes first, how to travel to the next stitch. A machine needs all of that written down.
Turning a design into a stitch file is called digitizing. For cross stitch it is done in embroidery software that has a cross stitch mode:
- The chart, or a scan of it, is laid behind a grid on the screen.
- A cross is placed in every square that has a symbol, in that symbol's color. Some programs fill the squares from a picture in one step, and the result is then tidied by hand.
- The size of a cross is chosen, and how many times the thread passes along each leg. A leg sewn more than once looks fuller.
- The program works out the sewing order for each color and saves the file in the machine's format.
A chart in whole crosses and few colors is the simplest to convert, because every square becomes one cross and the thread is changed fewer times.
How machine cross stitch differs from hand work
| By hand (1) | By machine (2) | |
|---|---|---|
| What you work from | A chart, counted square by square | A stitch file |
| What sets the grid | The weave of the cloth: Aida, evenweave or linen | The file: the cloth needs no holes to count |
| Cloth | Cloth you can count | Almost any fabric, hooped with a stabilizer behind it |
| Each cross | Two legs of floss through the holes of the cloth | Each leg sewn in one or more passes of machine thread |
| Between crosses | The thread is carried or ended on the back | Short travel stitches join one cross to the next |
| Size | Chosen by the fabric count | Set in the file, and limited by the hoop |
| What you need | A needle, thread and cloth | A machine, a stitch file, a hoop and stabilizer |
The two also feel different to do. Hand cross stitch is portable and needs almost nothing. With a machine the care goes into preparing the file and hooping the cloth, and the machine does the sewing, stopping when the thread has to be changed for the next color on a machine with one needle.
Can you use a pattern from this site on an embroidery machine?
Not as it is. Every cross stitch pattern here is a chart for counted stitching by hand: a grid of symbols with a thread key. No stitch file comes with it.
To sew one on a machine, the chart would have to be digitized as described above, in software that can place crosses. The charts here are in whole crosses, which is the kind that converts most directly.
Where to go next
If you would rather stitch by hand, what is cross stitch explains the craft and how to read a cross stitch pattern explains the chart. Types of cross stitch sets counted and stamped work side by side, and the Easy patterns are a gentle place to begin.