Simple Cross Stitch Projects for Kids

I learned this mistake from my kids. My boy had come home with his own cross stitch project from preschool. It was made from one of those all-in-one cross stitch kit. My girl wanted one too but I didn't have a cross stitch kit. I took out a flower design from one of my cross stitch books which I thought looked rather easy. It was not!

My girl could not follow the instructions. She didn't know which way to sew and which way to cross. In the end, she got frustrated. The project also took too long. It is still sitting somewhere in our craft cupboard uncompleted.

It was a bunch of flowers with shading. I learned that for kids cross stitch projects you must start slowly, with basic stitches only, no shading or other stitches, just straightforward colors, not too many colors, and the pattern must be big and easy to follow.

Kids Counted Cross Stitch must be small enough to be completed in a few short sittings so that kids don't feel frustrated. If they can complete it within a few sittings, they will feel pride in their work and want to do more. Then, you can move on to more complicated cross stitch projects for kids.

In the picture, you will see a cross stitch bookmark that was done by my son at 7 years old. Kids can make cross stitch bookmarks, cross stitch magnets, cross stitch cards, little cross stitch pictures or have their cross stitch sewn onto their own clothing to make it more fun!

I just love the EMS Cross Stitch Academy. They have beautiful free Cross Stitch Patterns you can access for free. There are many lovely free Cross Stitch for beginners and kids here. The best part is the charts can either be viewed online step-by-step or downloaded if you prefer.

There are many "firsts" Cross Stitch designs and free Cross Stitch Patterns here. First bouquet, First Mother's Day, First Motif and First Christmas. They are easy to follow yet beautiful.

DLTK's Crafts for Kids site has many free cross stitch patterns and projects for kids. They are great for any other beginner too.

Plus, they have framing or display suggestions for your completed cross stitch, which I like.

Alita Designs offers Free Cross Stitch Design for kids for direct download. You can find cross stitch patterns for bears, flowers, clowns, snowman, Santa and rabbits here.

Craft Designs for you has easy and very big kids cross stitch patterns designed specially for children. The designs are big and easy to read using few colors of floss and only basic stitches. They are perfect for beginners.

At the site, you can also find some great tips for teaching kids how to do cross stitch.

With kids, you want to keep projects mini. It is very important to start kids off with a small age appropriate project. Kids get frustrated quickly and they quickly lose their attention spans and interest if the project is too hard to complete.

Festive projects is a great mini project for kids. It gets them excited about the celebration and it keeps them involve to make something for the house or as a gift.

Christmas is approaching. This is a good time to start kids off with a mini Cross Stitch Project with a Christmas theme. They can sew a Cross Stitch Mini Christmas Ornament or a Cross Stitch Stocking if it is simple enough.