Baby Fox and Mouse Friend Cross Stitch Pattern

About this baby fox cross stitch pattern

A golden-orange fox cub sits upright on a strip of grass, smiling, with pink cheeks, a cream chest and a big white-tipped tail curled to one side. Beside its front paws a little gray mouse holds an acorn, and two blue bellflowers grow behind the tail. The outline is a dark navy rather than black, which keeps the whole picture soft.

It’s a friendship picture as much as a fox one, so it suits a child’s room, a card for a best friend or a gift for a new sibling. For a second fox in the same gentle style, the Baby Fox in a Winter Beanie is a good companion; our fox round-up compares every fox pattern by size and time.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 12“ x 11“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 23 DMC colors, about 23 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 3855 Autumn Gold – Light (1,136 stitches), 951 Tawny – Light (630) and 823 Navy Blue – Dark (545).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Intermediate for its color count rather than its size. At 3,370 stitches it takes roughly 34 to 56 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour. The fox is mostly two colors, but the mouse, the acorn, the flowers and the grass use many small amounts of thread, and about a third of the fabric (36.6%) stays bare.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Work the fox’s body in one go. 3855 Autumn Gold – Light covers 1,136 stitches, a third of the design. Stitching it before the cream 951 Tawny – Light (630) gives you the fox’s shape early and makes the rest easy to place.
• Use the navy outline as your map. 823 Navy Blue – Dark (545 stitches) outlines the fox, the mouse and the flowers. It is softer than black, so check you’ve bought 823 and not a black thread before you start.
• Group the tiny colors around the mouse. The mouse and its acorn use 06 Driftwood – Medium Light (103 stitches), 3860 Cocoa (27), 3861 Cocoa – Light (13) and 779 Cocoa – Dark (7). Stitch that corner in one sitting so you aren’t rethreading these short lengths across the whole chart.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 5.5“ x 4.9“ (14.0 x 12.4 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 4.8“ x 4.3“, and on 18-count at 4.3“ x 3.8“. An 8“ x 10“ frame leaves room for a mat.

Its wide, low shape also fits a 6“ hoop, finished with a strip of green fabric behind to match the grass.

What’s in the free PDF

• A cover page and a one-page overview with a preview of the design
• The chart, split across as many printable pages as you choose, in color or black and white, with a symbol for every DMC color, center lines, a mini-map showing which part of the design each page covers and a color key on every page
• The thread list: DMC number, color name, number of stitches and skeins to buy for each color
• The finished size on 11-, 14-, 16-, 18- and 28-count Aida