Expert: Kris - 5/16/2010

Question
I purchased a cross stitch pattern (counted) and need help with the following

1) I would like to change the hair so the basketball player is a boy  - not a girl.
2) change part of the color scheme
3) advise on how to purchase the correct amount of thread & size of fabric

Can you suggest someone???

Answer
Donna,

I can try to help you with this! As far as the hair, you can try to redesign the hair. Try drawing it on a piece of graph paper.You should be able to basically delete stitches till you find something that looks more masculine.

As far as changing the color scheme, its not too hard. Say the chart has a red uniform and you want to change it to blue, you want to make sure that you pick the same number of shades. If there are 4 shades of red then you need 4 shades of blue. Make sure that the shades are in the same color family. DMC has a website that lists the colors by family.

To figure your fabric size, find the design size first. Then determine what size fabric you are going to use. Let's say the design size is 140 x 210 stitches and you are stitching on 14 count Aida. To determine fabric size you divide the stitch count by the fabric size.  So 140/14 = 10 and 210/14 = 15. I always add at least 4 inches to each dimension for finishing. So 10 + 4 = 14 and 15 + 4 = 19. So the fabric size is 14 x 19. Unless it is a huge piece, you should not need more than one skien of each color.

I hope I was helpful. Please feel free to ask more questions if you need to!

Happy Stitching!
Kris