A DIY door sign for your baby - cross stitch style

Here's a little idea to make a unique door sign for your baby - use cross stitching. It's very easy to do. All you need is a piece of even weave linen or wool (you can also use "cotton aida cloth" which you can get in most fabric shops or just order it online), a number of threads with different colors (you can use any odd thread as long as it's not too thick) and a good needle (not too small). If you want to get really advanced you can also use a "hoop" or "scroll" which will make stitching evenly easier.

Next thing you need to do is pick a pattern and a font. Go online and look for some patterns and fonts - there are lots of free cross-stitch patterns available. Pick one that you like or that your baby / kids like and work out how many rows/columns of stiches you need. It's really easy to do this on paper (grid paper) - just mark the stiches for the patterns and the writing in the grid. You can play around with the spacing / layout on paper. Once you're happy with it use the paper as a template for stitching.

After that you just need to copy your design from the grid paper onto the fabric using cross stitches. Again, there are lots of online tutorials that explain the stitching part step-by-step. It's really easy and you can learn it in a matter of minutes. The end result looks quite impressive - especially if you put it in a wooden frame.

Once you have mastered the simple stuff you may want to move on to more challenging cross-stitch patterns ... here's an idea:

(picture taken from Wikpedia.org)

Have fun!

-Stef