When thinking about starting a cross stitching project - whether you’re a new stitcher or well seasoned- one of the first decisions is what kind of fabric you’ll want to use. For the beginning stitcher as well as the more seasoned stitcher Aida cloth is a good choice. Just what is Aida cloth, and what are other choices?? Over the next few blog posts we are going to take a look at just that: cloth types, counts, natural and hand dyed fabrics and how these factors work with your personal style and experience. I hope these educational posts will be helpful to everyone reading our blog.
So! Let’s start with Aida cloth.
Aida cloth is one part of what is termed even weave fabrics. Aida cloth is 100% cotton fabric made up of square holes that are evenly spaced- making it easy to see where your needle and your (stitched) X’s are being placed. Your stitches will be made over “1 square” placing your needle directly into the holes formed by the Aida’s horizontal and vertical threads.
The “count” or size of the squares you’ll stitch through determines how large your finished piece will be. Aida cloth can have a count as large as “6” or six squares per inch to as small as “20” or 20 squares per inch. As you can see… the larger the count the smaller the holes will be due to the increased number if stitches/ squares per inch. The size of the woven holes also determines how many floss threads and needle size you’ll use. Aida cloth tends to be stiffer than other stitching fabrics, but many stitchers like working on a fabric that can be so taunt. Today’s fabric dyers are producing wonderful hand dyed Aida much of it having a softer feel giving stitchers more choices for personal expression.
In my next post, we’ll look at other even weave fabrics on the market. If you have any questions about Aida cloth and its use, please leave a note in the comments.
Until then- happy stitching.
Terri