Make Your Own Cross-Stitch Patterns in 3 Easy Steps

Step 1: Set Up the Spreadsheet

I like to use Google Sheets for my patterns. It’s free and accessible on my phone, which I use for most patterns. Start by creating a Template tab. I keep the height of the cells as-is, and just adjust the width to match. Click the top left square to highlight all cells (yellow below), then drag Column A to the width you want. I just eyeball a square.

You’re now ready to start creating your pattern!

Step 2: Mark Out the Pattern

Just start typing things out! I use letters and symbols, but choose whatever font you want, I think Wingdings would work well. The nice thing about Google Sheets is you can copy and paste to change positions. This is especially useful when I’m incorporating words or multiple elements and I want to get the placement just right.

I’ll either use a photo or another pattern as inspiration, or I’ll sketch something out on graph paper and transpose to Google Sheets to make it perfect and play with colors.

Remember to use inspiration responsibly!

Step 3: Conditional Formatting for Colors

This is my favorite part. I like to play with the specific color combos or shades. It’s also helpful so you can check the gradation of areas with no outline. Choose Format > Conditional Formatting from the menu bar. Sometimes it can be a bit finicky, but refreshing the page or changing the order kicks it back into gear.

For this example I wanted to recreate a duck with some shadowing. After I put in the conditional formatting colors, I adjusted a few of the shapes to make it look how I wanted.

That’s all that there is to it! Stitch away and enjoy, ❤️ Petra.