With Christmas just around the corner, I’ve been enjoying festive crafts recently. One of the projects I worked on was a cross stitch image featuring a car carrying a decorated Christmas Tree. I’ve completed numerous cross stitch projects over the past year, but this time, it didn’t go to plan. In fact, I have to call it the worst assorted DIY kit I’ve ever seen! I managed to save the day in the end, but the process was far from a relaxing journey. Phew!

Contents of the kit

This kit was by the same brand as most of the DIY cross stitch sets I’ve bought before, so the contents of the box weren’t a surprise. The kit came with a plastic hoop, a blank aida canvas, threads in assorted colours, a couple of needles, a threader, and the instructions. I quickly mounted the aida on the hoop and proceeded to sewing.

First colour, first disaster

As always, I decided to start with the most prominent colour, which in this case was light blue. I started cross stitching and quickly realised that I might be facing a little issue. My suspicions were confirmed when I got to the end of the blue thread provided in the kit but still had some blue areas to cover.

I may not be the most experienced cross stitcher on the planet, but I’ve successfully completed a few handfuls of projects this year and vastly improved my technique over time. I don’t make many mistakes while I stitch, and I make sure not to create any knots or waste yarn in any way. I always try my best to use the yarn efficiently and maximise it as much as possible. And yet, I ran out of blue yarn.

You can see in the photo below how much blue thread there was left. It may look like a decent amount, but it’s not. Even if I somehow managed to fully use it up – which would be tricky, because stitching with thread shorter than the needle itself requires a lot of effort – I believe I still wouldn’t have managed to complete all of the blue areas. It’s not just the bottom of the car that was left, but also a few baubles on the tree.

Luckily, because I had previously completed many cross stitch projects by the same brand, I was able to go through my stash of leftover yarn and find a few pieces of thread in the exact same shade of blue. I used them to complete the blue parts of the design.

Failure after failure – another colour gone wrong

Having completed all light blue areas of the design, I moved on to the next colour – grey. I started with the car’s windows, and then stitched the wheels. And that’s where I faced yet another obstacle.

You can see in the photo how much grey yarn I had left at that point. Basically – not a lot at all. And I still had the huge grey block left to sew, the shadow under the car! There was no way I could do it with the three or so inches of thread I had left. This time, the yarn provided in the kit wasn’t even close to what was actually needed. Disaster!

Once again, I looked through all the leftover yarn from my previous projects, but this time, I wasn’t able to find the same shade of grey. Luckily, I also had a large set of threads in dozens of colours that I once bought “just in case”. I picked a light grey colour to sew the shadows.

Third time lucky

Next, I moved to the dark blue thread, hoping to avoid any further issues. Fortunately, the yarn included in the set was sufficient and I was able to complete the dark blue details on the car, which brought the design to life. I also added the dark blue small baubles on the tree.

Adding a touch of colour

Then, I moved to adding the colourful baubles on the Christmas tree. I started with the bright red, and then stitched the yellow baubles and the star. Thankfully, I didn’t run out of any of the colours and the process was finally as relaxing as it should have been from the start.

Green and greener… and another fiasco

Once all the baubles were in place, it was time to start sewing the Christmas tree. I really liked the style of the design, with the two shades of green yarn adding depth to the picture. I was anxious about the possibility of running out of yarn again, and unfortunately, my suspicions were confirmed when I used up all of the dark green thread and still had some dark green squares left to do.

Once again, I went through all of my leftover yarn from previous projects, looking for the same shade of green. I didn’t find the perfect match, but I did find a piece of thread in a close enough colour and completed the dark green part of the Christmas tree.

I then moved to the lighter shade of green, worried that I’d run out of yarn again. It was a close call, but there was enough – just about. The Christmas tree was completed.

Black… or brown?

Finally, it was time for the last colour – black. Well, at least according to the printed instructions, because in reality, the yarn included in the kit was brown. Once again, I was worried if the amount of yarn provided in the set would be sufficient, but it was enough – and the Christmas cross stitch design was completed.

Final thoughts

So, let’s talk about this design, and the point of buying assorted DIY kits in general.

Sets like this one are supposed to be great starter kits for beginners. They should enable you to complete a whole project, start to finish, without the need to purchase a large amount of supplies. You should be able to trust that if you buy an assorted kit, you’ll be able to complete the project from its front picture. You should almost be able to take a set like this to an uninhabited island and manage to successfully complete it.

And in this case, completing the design from the picture using just the yarn provided in the set was not possible.

I managed to turn things around thanks to having a large stash of yarn at home, but not every person buying a set like this would be able to save it. Imagine how disappointing and discouraging it must be if you purchase an assorted DIY kit to try a new craft, but then can’t actually complete the project!

I also need to point out one more thing, something I noticed when I first bought a cross stitch kit by this brand, many months ago: the whole set doesn’t include a single photo of a completed project. Both the leaflet with instructions and the cover photo are computer-generated images. In terms of the cover photo, it’s really sneaky – the digital diagram is applied on top of a real photo of the plastic hoop with a blank aida.

I have completed numerous cross stitch projects by this brand, and while none of them was as bad as this Christmas set, I was dangerously close to running out of yarn a few times, and I often found that the colours of the provided yarn didn’t make sense. And all of those experiences make me think that the makers of these kits have never attempted to complete them themselves.

That being said, I still think that assorted DIY kits are a great way to try out a new craft. They’re usually affordable, and most of them are reliable. Don’t let this one faulty set discourage you! I generally recommend assorted DIY kits for learning new crafts, and they can also make great gifts for your creative friends. But perhaps it’s a good idea to read some reviews before you buy one of these kits.

Also see:

• Christmas
• DIY