How Online Communities Changed Cross Stitch Forever 7 Apr 3:02 AM (16 days ago)
It’s not an understatement to say that online communities have changed cross stitch. From the early days of cross stitch forums to the more recent world of /r/crossstitch, and that’s not to mention the online communities like Etsy that have allowed cross stitchers to not only find niche designers, but become designers themselves.
So, I’ve decided to dig back into the annals of cross stitch history to find out how, and when, cross stitch communities changed the hobby.
Online Forums
Truly, the Wild West of the cross stitch era.
In the early 2000s, the internet had finally advanced enough that its presence was in every home, and people started creating niche websites, niche communities, and niche shops that people could come to from all over the world. Up to this point, cross stitch was marginalised to brick and mortar hobby stores or your local Needlecraft store.
The communities were great; local stitchers banding together to create some truly amazing works, some of which even became cross stitch world records, but they were also a little scary for outsiders.
If you were young, male, wanted to stitch something other than the core three cross stitch patterns, or just felt like your hobby wasn’t something you could speak to others about, you were straight out of luck.
Until the internet came to the rescue!
Forums offered niche interests and allowed for anonymity, meaning anyone could stitch anything and have a place where others would support it.
And what did we find? There were a lot of us.
Groups from around the world fed into these forums en masse, for all things, from NSFW to video games, and I even found a forum devoted to nothing but cross stitched shoes.
And from this sprang lots of new things, like designers now lost to time like LittleMojo. These were the days when no one really cared for cross stitch and copyrights, but also allowed for experimentation.
As people started gaining phones that were capable of somewhat easy internet access, the times of forums did change, though. Some pivoted, some became cross stitch magazines (mostly short-lived), others became wikis for cross stitch patterns (once again, mostly short-lived), and others became relics to an age that I, for one, hold dearly.
This was when I came to the cross stitch world, spurred on by fellow stitchers that would turn out to be lifelong friends, cross stitch forums laid the groundwork for future expansions into sharing culture, and online communities.
Etsy
And with forums came another new online community; Etsy.
Not so much an online community in a sense, but combined with forums, supportive friends, loose copyright infringement rules, and cross stitch pattern generators, Etsy became the go-to place for finding new patterns, new interests, and a developing designer culture.
You could find cross stitch patterns that simply weren’t being offered anywhere else, such as branded stitches, to unique and modern designs, something the cross stitch community had always feared. But they also found new designs meeting old school designs, with things like the home sweet home sampler being combined with video games and more.
At first, there weren’t many downsides. More patterns, more styles, and little oversight.
But the good times didn’t last.
Large companies became aware of people using their IPs, and quite rightly came into action to stop it. Sure, many would then go on to create official cross stitch books (I wrote a few!), but the breadth and depth of patterns using their IPs were lost.
We also saw more and more people trying to scam cross stitchers, drawn in by fancy images that were mock-ups of designs, now called ‘Pattern Mills’. This, combined with the lack of word of mouth between communities, meant scammers could run wild.
I’m still unsure if Etsy was a good thing for the cross stitch world, but it definitely had a moment, when anything was possible, and anyone could create anything.
This is when most of our best-known designers came to the fore, boosted by niche sales of cross stitch patterns and supported by strong communities.
But it also saw those brick and mortar stores struggling to cope with this new wave of cross stitchers who weren’t interested in their stock, or found alternative places where they could find patterns. Many closed, and the hobby store environment is very different from how it is now.
Instagram, Reddit and TikTok
With scammers on Etsy, people struggling to identify them, and niche groups separated by websites they simply didn’t know existed, came the next online community. And this one is still around and going strong.
Reddit, Instagram, and now TikTok allow for cross stitchers from any niche to come together, support each other, and importantly, weed out those scammers!
These new communities allowed smaller groups to come together, to find each other, and to find new connections.
Sadly, this means that those forums simply died off, but these new communities more than made up for it.
On any of these platforms, you can find stitchers of any type, and they share information across their niches. French knots are hard regardless of what pattern they might be in, or stitching on black aida might be easier with tips that advanced stitchers know.
I’m a big fan of this new generation of cross stitch community, but it also has some downsides; with a more unified cross stitch community, some brands struggled to compete, others grew exponentially, and new players came in to take advantage of this new market.
This sadly meant that the highs of patterns for anything were struggling as there was more competition than ever, but less and less branded material coming out. People were quickly moving from one thing to another, following trends rather than sticking with one style.
This in itself isn’t a bad thing, but it meant cross stitch designs were changing so quickly that designers couldn’t keep up.
Flosstube & Twitch
Sometime around the ‘Reddit revolution’ also came flosstube and Twitch.
These video-sharing platforms allowed stitchers to record themselves, or even stitch live, for others to enjoy, foregoing the standard typed style of community that forums, Reddit, or Etsy had developed.
Once again, cross stitch stopped being anonymous, with cross stitchers encouraged to share their faces with the world.
This was great in some ways, as it allowed some many stitchers to become rather successful Flosstubers, allowed others to show their face knowing they would be supported whoever they were, and even allowed for people to stand behind their cross stitch as art, not craft for the first time.
But it also lost a bit of the magic of a community. Instead of multiple people jumping in, you followed one or a handful of known people, limiting your exposure.
Ultimately, these communities were limited in size. Reddit groups get millions of views, but even the most popular flosstubers get near thousands of views. I’m not sure why this is, but these stitchers deserve talking about as they did something that no community had managed to do before: they removed the filter.
Most of these cross stitchers would talk about unglamorous parts of stitching, about being thread snobs, and about starting 101 new patterns, never finishing others, and even giving up on patterns altogether.
Temu, Alibaba & Amazon
Interestingly, around this time, cheaper Chinese online stores started coming into cross stitch communities. I’m not a fan of Temu in cross stitch, and many others aren’t either. They once again started scamming stores, and unlike Etsy sellers who respected copyright, these online stores didn’t care.
These have now developed beyond the core stores themselves, with niche websites also offering the sale of designers’ works at cutthroat pricing, without permission, but doing good trade thanks to places like TikTok.
But there were some winners here.
Some brands, like CXC threads came to the market, offering a really good quality product, at a much lower price.
Other heritage brands like DMC were gaining ground too, ultimately being about to buy out its one time competitor; Anchor. Sure, this meant that Anchor was struggling, but that may have been down to some failed experiments like cross stitch thread on spools.
AI
And finally, we get to the most modern of cross stitch communities: AI.
I’ve spoken about AI cross stitch patterns before, and we’re going to see more of them, for sure. But the reason I mention them isn’t the patterns themselves, which in some situations can be OK. Instead, it’s about communities outside of cross stitch.
If you go on Instagram or TikTok, you’ll find literally thousands of people talking about how you can make ‘millions’ off of cross stitch using AI tools to research trends, create patterns, and manage stores.
And we’re seeing the impact.
Once again, we are seeing mass-produced, terrible quality patterns hit the market. Major brands can no longer keep up with the copyright infringement notices, and other brands use Chinese stores to avoid copyright issues altogether.
Thankfully, the community is still strong, making sure people know how to pick a quality cross stitch pattern, and helping others avoid those bad designers out for a quick buck!
Are there any communities you think were instrumental in building the cross stitch world we know today that we didn’t cover?
Happy stitching,
Lord Libidan
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