I picked up the recent Cross Stitch Crazy magazine pretty much entirely because of the free kit. I thought dad could do with something made specially for him and the afghan I want to make him is a long way off.
Its cute enough but in the end I wasn't really satisfied. It started with 2blues that looked very similar. If you're going to bundle your colours at least tell me how many lengths there are of each so I can be sure I've made the right call on which blue is 'blue' and which is 'dark blue'.
Then there are a couple of discrepancies between the stitched design in the front and the actual kit. Only 2of note, his nose is a different darker colour in the picture and his coat has an additional 2 back stitch lines in the kit. While not major it doesn't give you much confidence in the kit.
On to the stitching. I think my major gripe is that all the definition comes from complicated and fiddly back stitching. I fudged the 'best dad' on the cup and hated the crisscross on the shoes. This design just should not have been shrunk down so much. (7.5x7.5cm) it needed to be at least 1size up. Probably 2. And with significantly more tone.
I also missed a bit of backstitching on the chair. But too late now.
Do I like the final product? Mehe it's alright. Nice enough to give to dad now it's done. But for 10hrs or so of work not something I'd commit to again.
