How to turn a photo into a cross stitch pattern
A pet, a house, a wedding photo, a child’s drawing — almost any picture can become a cross stitch chart. Whether the result is a clean pattern or a blotchy mess comes down to four choices: the photo, the size, the fabric count and the number of colors.
Short answer
Pick a photo with one clear subject and strong contrast, crop it tight, and decide the finished size first: stitches = inches × fabric count, so a 6″ hoop on 14-count Aida is 84 × 84 stitches. Start with about 15–20 thread colors, clear away single stray stitches, then check the chart before you buy thread. A pattern-maker app does the conversion and matches each color to a DMC floss number; try it on your own photo before paying for one.
Try it on your photo Gingham shows the whole pattern before you pay anything.
1. Choose a photo that will survive being turned into squares
A cross stitch chart is a grid of single-color squares, usually somewhere between 50 and 150 stitches across. Everything in the photo has to survive being reduced to that. The photos that work:
- One clear subject — a face, a pet, a building — filling most of the frame. Crop out everything else.
- Strong contrast between the subject and the background. A dark dog on a light sofa works; a grey cat on a grey blanket turns to mush.
- Even light. Hard shadows become big dark patches you will have to stitch.
- A plain background, or one you are happy to lose. Busy backgrounds eat colors and stitches.
Drawings, logos and cartoons convert better than photographs, because they already use a few flat colors.
2. Decide the finished size before anything else
The finished size and the fabric decide how many stitches the pattern has, and the number of stitches decides how much detail survives. The rule is simple:
14-count Aida has 14 stitches per inch. A 6″ hoop on 14-count is 6 × 14 = 84 stitches across.
- Small pieces (ornaments, bookmarks, cards) give you 40–60 stitches: good for bold shapes and silhouettes, not for faces.
- A 6″ hoop at 14-count gives about 84 × 84: enough for a recognisable pet or a simple portrait.
- Pillows and wall art give 150+ stitches: real detail, and many weeks of stitching.
Fabric count: 11-count has bigger stitches and is easier to see; 14-count is the usual starting point; 16- and 18-count make the same design smaller with finer detail. If you change the count, keep the stitch count and the finished piece changes size — or keep the size and the pattern gains or loses stitches.
3. Use fewer colors than you think
Every extra color is another thread to buy, another symbol to read and more single stitches scattered through the design. For a first pattern from a photo, 15–20 colors is a good starting point; detailed portraits can use 40 or more, and bold designs look best with 8–12.
Watch for confetti — lone stitches of one color surrounded by another. They are slow to stitch and barely visible in the finished piece. A good converter can clear them away; otherwise, edit them out before you start.
4. Check the chart, then buy the thread
Before spending money on floss, zoom in on the chart and look at the parts that matter — eyes, edges, lettering. If a face has lost its expression, go back and crop tighter, go up a size, or add a few colors. When it looks right, the color key tells you which DMC numbers to buy and roughly how many skeins of each.
Which apps turn a photo into a cross stitch pattern?
On Android, several apps convert a photo to a chart. They differ most in what you can try before paying — the thing their unhappy reviewers complain about most.
| App | Installs | Rating | Ads | Before you pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gingham (ours) | New | No ratings yet | No | Make and inspect a full pattern from your own photo; then a subscription with a free trial |
| Magic Needle | 100K+ | 4.0★ (837) | No | Free to download, in-app purchases |
| Stitch Creator | 50K+ | 4.3★ (543) | Yes | Free with ads, no in-app purchases listed |
| Cross Stitch Pattern Creator | 50K+ | 1.7★ (176) | No | A few sample patterns; creating your own needs a purchase |
Installs, ratings (with the number of ratings), ads and in-app purchases as shown on each app’s US Google Play listing, 13 September 2026. We have not tested the other apps side by side, so this table describes rather than ranks them. Something out of date? Tell us and we’ll fix it.
What their users say
Stitch Creator is well rated overall. Its recent 1–2★ reviews mention image import errors, patterns disappearing after an update, and non-square photos being forced into a square (2024–2025).
Cross Stitch Pattern Creator’s low rating comes almost entirely from one complaint, repeated for years: the app is free to download, but creating a pattern from your own design requires paying first, with no way to try it (2021–2026).
Magic Needle holds a 4.0★ rating, and one Cross Stitch Pattern Creator reviewer names it as a free alternative that works. Its Play listing shows a last update in April 2025.
Where Gingham fits — and where it doesn’t
Gingham was built around that complaint: you can make a pattern from your own photo and look at every stitch, at full quality and without a watermark, before any paywall. Saving, exporting the PDF and making more patterns need Gingham Pro, a weekly or yearly subscription with a free trial — if you want a one-time purchase, Gingham isn’t that. It matches colors to DMC floss (up to 60 colors), lets you set the size and crop freely, and also makes crochet, knitting, alpha bracelet and fuse bead patterns from the same photo. It is new, and it doesn’t chart backstitch or read PDF patterns you already own — for stitching from an existing PDF, a pattern-reader app is the better tool.
See your photo as a pattern
Pick a photo, choose a hoop or a pillow, and see the finished chart with its DMC shopping list in seconds — on your phone, with your photo never uploaded. Decide afterwards.
