How to unpick a cross stitch mistake without damaging the fabric
Everyone makes mistakes: a shift of one square, the neighbouring shade instead of the right one, an extra row. The good news is that cross stitch unpicks almost without a trace, as long as you take your time. Here's how.
First decide whether to unpick
- A counting mistake that shifts the design — unpick it: otherwise it pulls everything around it out of place.
- A neighbouring shade in the middle of the background — look at the work from arm's length. If you can't see the difference, you can leave it.
- One extra cross at the edge of an area is sometimes easier to work into the design than to unpick. It's your call: it's your stitching.
One or two crosses
- Turn the work over so the back faces you.
- With a blunt needle (the one you stitch with), lift the last stitch and pull it out.
- Undo the stitches one by one, in reverse order, until you reach the mistake.
- Don't reuse the thread you pulled out: it's worn and will fray. Take a fresh length.
If the thread is already secured, cut the tail with small scissors on the back, not on the front.
A large area
When a whole block is stitched wrong, undoing it stitch by stitch takes a long time. Instead:
- On the front, lift the top stitch of a cross and carefully cut it with small sharp scissors. Cut only the thread — keep the tips of the scissors above the fabric, not under it.
- Cut every cross in the area this way.
- Pull the cut pieces out from the back with tweezers.
- Lift fluff and short bits of thread with sticky tape or a lint roller.
The main risk is cutting a thread of the fabric. So go slowly and work in good light.
What to do with the fabric afterwards
- Stretched holes. Lightly run a fingernail or the blunt end of a needle across the fabric — the holes close up. New crosses will cover them.
- Fluff from dark thread. If wisps are left on light fabric, lift them with sticky tape before you stitch again.
- Hoop marks come out with washing and pressing — see "How to wash and press a finished cross stitch".
How to make fewer mistakes
- Count twice before the first stitch of a new area.
- Check by tens: every ten squares, see whether what you've stitched lines up with the bold lines of the chart grid. More in "How not to get lost in a big chart".
- Check colours in daylight. In the evening neighbouring shades are easy to mix up — see "Stitching in the evening".
Where the app comes in
If you marked crosses in Crossette and then unpicked them, remove their marks: that way the percentage stitched and what's left of each thread stay right.
About the author
This article was written by the Crossette team. We're building Crossette, a cross stitch tracker for iPhone and iPad. It's in development; to join the beta, see the Beta page.