Small Good Things

Hello lovelies! I have a fun and colourful tutorial today for you – as you can guess from the title, it’s about a cross-stitched letter sorter. Cross-stitching a letter sorter? Yap, you heard it right. Maybe I should categorise it as ‘mad ideas’ rather than ‘craft’, right? But this is what happens when your husband comes home with an ugly letter sorter :)

Anyways, before I hop and skip onto the tutorial, I have to tell you that this is my first ever cross-stitch project. Yes, really. So, I am not an expert on the subject, and I’m sure there are better ways to do it. If you are an experienced cross-stitcher, you won’t even need the tutorial!

What you’ll need:

• metal letter sorter
• embroidery floss

(not in the photo)

• tapestry needle (the one with blunt tip)
• spray paint

Instructions:

1) In a well-ventilated area, spray paint the letter sorter. Set aside until the paint is completely dry (I wasn’t patient enough and made a tiny mess, which you will see later on…). If you like the colour of your letter sorter as it is, you can skip this process, of course.

2) Thread a needle, and start stitching! Instead of tying a knot, hold the end of the floss (leaving about 7cm) with your left hand. Bring the needle up, from where you want the design to start, skip one row of wire, and reinsert the needle at the next row. Bring the needle up from the right next row, reinsert the needle where you reinserted before (sort of back-stitch motion).

Continue in this way until you reach the end of your design. Oh, and do you see the wonky paints near the stitch? This is because I touched the paint before it was completely dry.

3) Next, go back up by stitching across the rows. When you go back to the very first stitch, tie a knot with the end of the floss.

4) Continue to stitch the same way until you complete the design.

Voila! Looks fun, right?

I asked Mr T which colour I should use (it’s his letter sorter, after all), but that was it – I didn’t plan any design beforehand, and just stitched spontaneously.

And it looks super cute in action, too! And the best thing for me was that I really enjoyed my first try at cross-stitching – it’s such a shame that I’ve wasted 32 years of my life not trying it!

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, and happy crafting!