Doctor Who Christmas cross stitch

Who doesn't like a touch of Christmas during these boiling days of almost-summer?  I know that I start prepping for Christmas as far in advance as possible, since so much of my decor and many of my gifts are handmade.  Also, I just adore Christmas.  Since I can't do much pattern editing, testing, or sharing right now thanks to my computer going on strike, I thought I would share a Doctor Who Christmas cross stitch project I recently completed.

Here it is, all framed up:

Doctor Who Christmas cross stitch.  You can create your own pattern with just a few simple steps!

My apologies for the pictures; I didn't take them before it was framed, so it was exceptionally hard to get a shot without showing you my entire living room in the reflection.  :)

There's no pattern for this one, because it's not my own design.  I can't even honestly remember where I found the source image for this one.  I'm really just sharing this as a geek sewing tip so you can learn how to make your own.

To make it, I found a t-shirt or sweatshirt pattern I liked and printed it out so I could work on it away from the computer.  There are tons of nerdy Christmas shirt patterns out there that you could easily convert to cross stitch, like this one.  You will find this to be much easier if the image appears to be made of v-shaped knitting stitches.  If you find one you like that is not already in stitches for you, you can use a cross stitch conversion program (like Pic 2 Pat) to create a pattern from the picture you found.  However, I discovered that did not work well for this particular project, so use it at your own risk.

I then printed up some free cross stitch pattern papers, taped them together, and carefully went through the original picture section by section, counting each v-shaped "stitch" on the sweater as a square on the paper, and coloring the paper to match.  You could use symbols as well, but if the pattern has few enough colors, it makes it easier to stitch it out if you just use colored pencils and color in each block.  I stitched mine on navy blue Aida cloth so the colors would pop.

I love how it turned out!

Almost the entire thing is simple cross stitch, with no half or quarter stitches, no French knots, and minimal backstitching.  I only added backstitching to some of the snowflake shapes and in the center of the bowtie to help give it shape.  The pattern lent itself to this simplified cross stitch really well.  However, I wanted to include the Christmas lights that wrapped around the TARDIS in the original image, so I backstitched a green cord and added tight lazy daisies in red for the lightbulbs.

The TARDIS centerpiece.

I'm looking forward to displaying this at the holidays.  There are always little geeky items and crafts tucked away around our house, and Christmas should be no exception.

I also recently finished a Hobbit-themed cross stitch for our dining room at the new house, and I'm really pleased with it.  I'll share that one -- with links to the pattern -- as soon as I have it framed up.