Kawaii Smiling Burger Cross Stitch Pattern

About this burger cross stitch pattern

The burger has a happy face on its top bun, little pink blush marks and just enough cheese and lettuce showing to read clearly at a very small size. It’s drawn in the cute kawaii style, with a dark brown outline around every layer.

Because it’s so small, it works as more than a framed piece: a patch for a lunch bag, a keychain, a fridge magnet or a quick funny gift for someone who lives for fast food. Our food collection includes the Pizza Slice and other small food designs. It’s the quickest pattern in our cute patterns round-up.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 8“ x 8“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 11 DMC colors, about 11 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 898 Coffee Brown – Very Dark (165 stitches) and 3856 Mahogany – Ultra Very Light (162).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Beginner and is a good very first project. At 502 stitches it takes roughly 5 to 10 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour, and the two bun colors cover 327 of those stitches. Everything else is small areas of cheese, lettuce and blush.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Use good light or a magnifier. The whole design is under 30 stitches wide, so a single misread square shifts the smile off-center more than it would on a bigger piece.
• Stitch the bun outline first. 898 Coffee Brown – Very Dark gives every layer its edge; with it in, the cheese and lettuce are easy to fill.
• Place the blush last. 819 Baby Pink – Light is a single stitch on one cheek. Add it once the face is done so you can judge its spot against the finished smile.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 1.9“ x 1.6“ (4.8 x 4.1 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 1.6“ x 1.4“, and on 18-count at 1.4“ x 1.3“. For the 14-count version, a 5“ x 7“ frame leaves room for a wide mat.

It fits a 3-inch hoop, and on a scrap of fabric it makes a sweet greeting-card front.

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