On our series covering the best cross stitch magazines we review the biggest world wide cross stitch magazine, The World Of Cross Stitching.
To do this review we’ve compiled a series of reviews from industry leaders, as well as feefo reviews and at least a year of continuous subscription to the mag.
When people think of cross stitch magazines, the first one they think of is The World Of Cross Stitching. Its one of the longest-running magazines and has over 44,000 monthly readers, making it the largest international cross stitching magazine. As a result, when flicking through, you see mainstream patterns; tailored to make sure they are as accessible as possible. Whilst this can appeal to an average cross stitcher, the younger or male cross stitchers tend to feel very underwhelmed by the teddy, flower and heart patterns that adorn most issues.
The teddy was just so cute, it even got my daughter into cross stitching!
In regards to the content itself, almost all of the patterns are by the four editors/designers who aren’t known for being big players in the field. At least 20% of the magazine is devoted to full-page adverts for various companies. The patterns themselves are mostly small (under 5 hours stitching time), with one 24+ hour piece in each issue.
Its market share shows that cross stitch clearly isn’t on the way out, however with its slightly overplayed British vibe and traditional patterns, its lost market share recently to alternatives like the CrossStitcher which appeals to a younger crowd.
$6 – $12 per month; digital and print
| ✓ Loads of patterns ✓ Lots of mainstream patterns ✓ Large readership |
╳ Not many modern patterns ╳ Expensive outside of the UK ╳ Not many freebies |
Score: 9.2/10
17213 reviews on feefo
If you liked this review, or are looking for something similar you might like our review of the CrossStitcher, or a quick review of the biggest cross stitch magazines.
Cross Stitcher went through a nasty publisher change and the results have been horrid. Magazines stopped coming, I’m in the US so they were a month behind. They never told me my sub expired it anything. I resubbed in October 2017 and in February I still had no magazine! I had to file fraud charges with PayPal up get my money back. However, I gave signed up for the digital copy through Zinio and haven’t had any issues and actually get that months magazine on time. It’s kind of sad because I will miss the freebies with the print edition, but that company really needs to get their stuff together.