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 From a Photo - Do It Yourself
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Suppose you have a favorite photograph which you _know_ would look just as
wonderful as a cross stitch picture.  It is possible for you to create the
chart yourself, with patience, graph paper and a photocopier.  There are
several variations in the basic technique, but all involve placing a grid onto
a copy of the photo.

Plastic transparencies with a variety of grid sizes are available from many
craft stores under the brand names "TransGraph-X" or "Easy Grid".  If you
cannot find these transparencies, you may be able to make your own by
photocopying graph paper onto the kind of plastic sheets used with overhead
projectors.

Lay the transparency over a picture or photograph, and photocopy them at the
same time.  If you can find a place to do a color photocopy, all the better.
This gives something that can be used as the start of your chart.  You will
still need to make decisions as to thread colors.

Another method is to trace the picture before putting it on any kind of graph.
Below is one person's approach:

From: balbes@osiris.rti.org (Lisa Balbes)...
   I did this on a comic book cover, but the principle will apply for any
   picture.  You'll need to:

   1. Start with a rather large copy of the picture, perhaps slightly smaller
      than you want the finished picture to be.  (Blowing it up on a copier is
      much cheaper than getting a big print - you can use black and white copy
      if it's high contrast, otherwise blow it up in color.

   2. Trace the picture onto graph paper, 20 squares to the inch is a good
      size.  Remember to trace the outlines of all shapes, as well as
      backstitching lines (where needed to define the shapes).  Decide how
      much shading you will do, and outline regions accordingly.

   3. Take the tracing and use it to make a pattern on graph paper (10
      squares to the inch for this part).  In this stage you will decide which
      will be 1/4 stitches, what will be 3/4 stitches, etc.  You will "square
      off" all the curves.  There are 2 reasons for this step - you get a
      bigger pattern to work from, and you make all the decisions now, instead
      of when stitching.

   4. Take the _original_  picture to your favorite store with a good display
      of floss.  (You can do this at home if you have a stitcher's card that
      displays pieces of each color of floss.)  Choose the colors, noting not
      only what is closest to the color of the real thing, but what colors
      work together.

   5. If you now work the piece on 18 count fabric, it will turn out slightly
      larger than the copy you traced.  (I prefer to work over 2 threads on 36
      count linen.)

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