Today we have a fantastic guide from @restitch, an artist I’m frankly in love with. His upcycling of completed cross stitch he finds in charity stores are great, and they always look just like the original artist made them that way. He’s opened up his crafty ways and shows you how to make a pattern like him.
 
Hi, my name is Johan Ronström and I’m @restitch on Instagram, restitching old second-hand embroideries with video game characters.
 
Below is a guide on how I made the pattern for my Mario pillow. I usually do my patterns like this, in Photoshop, since I use it in my day job and am very familiar with the program. But most steps use normal tools, and you can follow along with a basic understanding of the program and some google skills! Enjoy 🙂
 

 
Here’s what I do in the video step-by-step:
 
– Count the number of pixels/stitches that needs to be covered
– Covering that pixels from a photoshop document that I made
– Converting it to a Smart Object, so I can transform it as much as I want without quality loss
– Transforming it to roughly match the size by dragging the corners in Free Transform
– Matching the grid all around the edges with Transform -> Warp
– Covering up sneaky stitches by copying empty squares from the original image
– Adjusting the color of the cover-up with a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer (set to only affect the layer below)
– Smoothing out the edges by painting in a Layer Mask
– Googling for Mario 1 sprites in 1x resolution
– Copying the image into a new Photoshop document
– Picking out one sprite and removing the background with the Magic Wand
– Googling for a reference image from Mario Odyssey
– Changing the colors of the sprite into the Mario Odyssey colors, using Magic Wand
– Taking a screenshot of the sprite zoomed-in (this is the key to the kingdom!)
– Pasting the screenshot in a new document
– Removing the frame and the background with the Magic Wand
– Copying the big sprite into the pillow document
– Converting it to a Smart Object, so I can transform it as much as I want without quality loss
– Creating a new layer and drawing center guidelines
– Transforming it to roughly match the size by dragging the corners in Free Transform
– Positioning it where I want it in relation to the center
– Re-arranging the layers and reducing the opacity of the guides
– Changing the colors of the sprite to match the colors of the pillow, using Magic Wand
 
Finally, I can follow the pattern on my phone! 🙂
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHvJdF0jmOe/
 
These are a few more examples of my patterns:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEwnGdgFD8z/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Baa6e2xlHTs/