Small designs are forgiving. Big ones are not. On a large pattern with thousands of stitches, a single miscount in the early rows can quietly push everything else out of line, and you may not notice until a whole section refuses to fit. Gridding is the technique that keeps you accurate, and it is well worth the hour it takes to set up.
What gridding is
Gridding means marking your blank fabric into ten-by-ten squares that match the bold grid lines on your chart. Since almost every chart is divided into blocks of ten, laying the same grid onto your fabric means each block on the chart corresponds exactly to one square on the cloth.
Instead of counting from the centre across hundreds of stitches, you only ever count within a small ten by ten box. If you make a mistake, it is trapped inside that one square and easy to spot and fix.
Why it is worth the effort
Gridding takes time up front, but it pays you back many times over:
- Accuracy. Errors stay contained in a single square rather than spreading across the design.
- Speed. You spend far less time counting and re-counting once the grid is down.
- Confidence. You can put a big project down for weeks and pick it straight back up, because the grid tells you where you are.
- Less frogging. Fewer miscounts means less unpicking, which is the least fun part of the craft.
For anything larger than a small motif, most experienced stitchers grid as a matter of course.
Method one: washable fabric pen
The quickest method is a water-soluble or air-erasable fabric marker.
- Use the pen and a ruler to draw lines every ten squares, following the holes in the fabric
- Keep the lines light, just enough to see
- The marks wash out with cold water when the piece is finished
A word of caution. Always test your pen on a scrap of the same fabric first, and never press or iron over the marks with heat before removing them, as heat can set some inks permanently. Wash the marks out with cold water only.
Method two: gridding thread
The most popular method with big-project stitchers is gridding thread, a fine thread laid over the fabric in a ten by ten grid.
- Use a smooth, brightly coloured thread that is easy to see and does not shed fluff, such as a fine machine-quilting thread
- Run lines under and over the fabric every ten squares, matching your chart
- Remove each line of gridding thread as you stitch up to it
Gridding thread leaves no marks at all, which makes it a safe choice for special or expensive fabric. It takes longer to lay than pen, but many stitchers find the rhythm of it relaxing.
Method three: pre-gridded fabric
You can also buy pre-gridded fabric, where the ten by ten grid is already printed in a colour that washes out. It saves the setup time entirely. The trade-off is less flexibility over grid size and fabric choice, and you are relying on the printed grid being accurate, so buy from a supplier you trust.
Matching your grid to your chart
Whichever method you choose, the golden rule is the same. Your fabric grid must line up with the bold ten-square lines on your chart. Find the centre of your fabric, count outwards in tens, and mark accordingly. If reading those grid lines is still new to you, our guide on how to read a cross stitch pattern explains them.
Keeping track once you have gridded
Gridding solves counting on the fabric, but you still need to know which squares you have completed on the chart. Pairing a gridded fabric with a digital pattern that shades in your finished stitches gives you the best of both. HobbyTub lets you track a large design stitch by stitch and see your progress at a glance, which is a real help on projects that take months. Take a look at the pattern catalogue for larger designs to try.
Grid your fabric once, at the start, and a daunting large pattern becomes a series of small, manageable squares. It is the single best habit for stitching big.