How to use Cross Stitch Pattern Maker
From picture to pattern with the stitch counts, the center marks and the thread list — matched in real color space, tidied of confetti, and yours to repaint stitch by stitch.
A short guide to getting good results, plus answers to the questions people ask most.
How to use it
- 1
Add an image — or don't
Drop a photo and the grid takes its proportions automatically, or start a blank chart and build the palette thread by thread from the picker.
- 2
Size it like fabric
Set stitches, fabric count or finished size — the readout shows real centimeters and inches, and the piece of fabric to cut with a margin for the hoop. Choose strands per stitch and every floss estimate follows.
- 3
Make it stitchable
Tidy the confetti, repaint cells, add half and quarter stitches at the edges, trace backstitch outlines, and try a second colorway without losing the first.
- 4
Check it before you start
The Review tab reads the chart the way an experienced stitcher would: threads used only a handful of times, colors too close to tell apart, symbols that clash, confetti, and how many sheets it prints across. Fix what it finds in a click, or decide it was deliberate.
- 5
Export and stitch
A paged PDF with the key, print-grade PNG or TIFF, vector SVG, or OXS for other stitch software. Print at 100% and the size on paper is the size on the readout.
About this tool
Drop in a photo and the tool samples it onto your grid — sized in stitches, fabric count or finished size, with the proportions locked to the image so nothing arrives stretched. It reduces the colors in a perceptual color space, matches them to a 450-code thread palette, and shows you the chart the way a printed one works: symbols on color, a heavier line every ten stitches, numbers along the edges and arrows at the center, because that is where you start counting. All of it happens on your device; the photo is never uploaded.
Then you make it stitchable. One click tidies confetti — the isolated single stitches that slow every photo pattern down — but only where a neighboring thread represents the picture almost as well, so a deliberate highlight survives. Paint cells by hand, soften edges with half and quarter stitches, trace outlines in backstitch, and keep whole recolorings side by side as colorways of one pattern. Export paged PDF with the key and skein estimates, print-grade PNG or TIFF, vector SVG, or OXS for other stitching software. An account is optional and stores the pattern itself — a few kilobytes of decisions — never your photo.
Features
A real thread palette
About 450 solid colors matched in CIELAB, the color space built to mirror how eyes compare colors. Lock the threads you own, replace any thread from the palette, and rematch only when you ask.
Colorways, side by side
Keep several recolorings of one pattern — original, high-contrast, three-color — and switch between them instantly. Each carries its own threads, repaints and outlines.
Charts you can stitch from
Symbols sized to read, coordinates every ten stitches, center arrows, a thread key with stitch counts and skein estimates, and pages that overlap so nothing is lost at the seam.
Nothing is uploaded
Sampling, matching, editing and every export run in your browser. The only thing that can leave your device is the pattern you choose to save to your account.
A second opinion before you start
Seven checks for what makes a photo pattern miserable to work: barely-used threads, colors nobody can tell apart, clashing symbols, confetti, and thread that disappears into the cloth. Each one shows the number behind it, and offers a fix where the answer is not a matter of taste.
See it as thread, not squares
Switch the canvas to a stitched preview — woven fabric under crossing strands of floss, shaded so it reads as cloth rather than a grid. Exports stay charts: the preview is for deciding, not for stitching from.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Cross Stitch Pattern Maker really free?
Yes. Photo conversion, the full thread palette, backstitch, fractional stitches, colorways and every export format are free, with no sign-up and no watermark. An account is optional and only keeps your patterns so you can reopen them elsewhere.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. The image is sampled and matched entirely in your browser. Saving a pattern to your account stores the chart's decisions — threads, repaints, outlines — not your photo, unless you choose to attach it.
Can I use the pattern in other stitching software?
Yes. Export OXS — the Open Cross Stitch format — and open the chart in WinStitch, MacStitch, FlossCross and anything else that reads it. Full stitches, half stitches, quarters and backstitch all make the trip.
Does it do knitting charts?
There is a knitting preset: knitted stitches are wider than tall, so the tool re-derives the grid at true stitch proportions and the finished-size readout stays honest. The chart tools are the same either way.
How much fabric do I need?
You get both numbers. The finished size is what the stitches cover; the cut size adds three inches on every side, and that margin is not padding. About an inch disappears into a hoop or under the edge of a frame, another is needed to mount the work, and the last is what lets you re-center a piece that drifted while you stitched it.
How many strands should I use?
Two on 14-count fabric is the usual answer, three on 11-count or whenever you want the cloth fully covered, and one on very fine fabric. Set it in the Chart tab and the skein estimates and the OXS export both follow it. Backstitch is counted separately, because outlines are normally worked finer than the stitches they outline.
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