Fixing a Half Stitch on a Counted Cross Stitch Project?

gggd
Silver Answer Medal for All Time! 425 Answers

November 8, 20200 found this helpful

Take a needle threaded with the same color as your "mistake" stitch and go back over or under the partial stitch, to make it look complete. If what you have done is upper left to lower right, then you need to go OVER the stitch. If you did the upper right to lower left, then you need to go under the stitch you've done. Which ever way you did the "mistake" stitch, by doing the other HALF STITCH, you will be making a complete cross stitch, and it should look fine. I've been cross stitching for over 30 years, and even I make a mistake now and then....usually when I'm tired. Most mistakes CAN be fixed without undoing a bunch of stitches, but sometimes a mistake can only be properly fixed by clipping the threads and ripping out the wrong part and re-stitching.

BelleL

November 9, 20200 found this helpful

Thank you! I've been trying to straighten my thread by doing just that probably every 10 stitches or so (I started doing this because it was knotting up terribly as I tried to pull it through the cloth). This is my third project and I'm using the thread that came with the kit. Some of it seems to be really "twisty." Is it me or can you receive "bad" thread?

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Cross stitching is really helping with my anxiety. I'm so glad I found it.

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gggd
Silver Answer Medal for All Time! 425 Answers

November 10, 20200 found this helpful

Not all cross stitch floss is the same quality, so, yes you can get some floss that is prone to twisting and separating, even shedding thread pieces, and my experience is that cheaper kits are more apt to have lesser quality floss. I found years ago, I have the best stitching experience using DMC brand. My second choice is Anchor, and third choice is JP Coats. That doesn't mean you can't buy cheaper kits, but if you try the included thread and find you have problems with it, you just buy a better thread in the colors needed. Here is a link to info on 5 floss brands: www.thread-bare.com/.../5-cross-stitch-floss-brands-compared .

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Another trick that helps is, when I separate my floss into the 6 strands, I make sure to hang each strand to fully untwist, then I run each strand over a damp sponge (or even my wet tongue), before combining however many strands I need, then thread my needle. This seems to completely straighten and smooth every part of the threads. I hang my needle about every dozen stitches. You will find that with experience, you CAN make the cheaper brand of floss look okay by smoothing it out more often, but I still like DMC best. Floss is a matter of personal choice, which you will develop with stitching experience. I taught my daughter cross stitching when she was about 7 or 8, and she still does it now, at 39. She loves it as much as I do. If you have anymore questions, you can email me personally at: gggd@mail.com -- my name is Georgia. So, good luck and happy stitching !!!

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poehere
Bronze Post Medal for All Time! 105 Posts

November 10, 20200 found this helpful

I tried this and like you, I made many mistakes. What I did to fix my problems was to get a small piece of thread and three it across the line of stitches n the back I had finished and complete my sitch and then thread it through the stitches again to cut off the thread.