Puppy Eating a Burger Cross Stitch Pattern

About this dog cross stitch pattern

A round orange puppy with a cream muzzle sits back on its haunches, eyes squeezed shut, taking an enormous bite out of a cheeseburger it holds in both paws. The burger has a sesame bun, a thick patty, melted cheese, lettuce and tomato, and crumbs fly off in every direction. A blue bandana with a white paw print is tied around the puppy’s neck, and its pink paw pads face you at the bottom.

It’s a picture for a kitchen, a diner-style wall or a dog owner whose dog would do exactly this given the chance. For a tiny burger without the dog, the Kawaii Smiling Burger takes an afternoon; our funny cross stitch round-up has more animals behaving badly.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 17“ x 18“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 25 DMC colors, about 29 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 977 Golden Brown – Light (4,438 stitches), 938 Coffee Brown – Ultra Dark (4,168) and 951 Tawny – Light (2,368).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Intermediate: the puppy is big blocks of orange and cream, but the burger packs many colors into its layers. At 16,507 stitches it takes roughly 165 to 275 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour, and about 29% of the fabric stays bare.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Buy three skeins each of 977 and 938. 977 Golden Brown – Light (4,438 stitches) is the puppy’s fur, and 938 Coffee Brown – Ultra Dark (4,168) is the thick outline. Each needs three skeins; buy them together for one dye lot.
• Stitch the burger layer by layer. Start with the bun, then the patty, cheese, lettuce and tomato. Each layer has its own outline in 938, so finishing one before the next keeps the colors from bleeding into each other on the chart.
• Leave the crumbs and bandana print for last. The flying crumbs are scattered single stitches, and the paw print on the 334 Baby Blue – Medium bandana (226 stitches) is a small white shape. Adding them at the end avoids long jumps of thread across the back.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 10.6“ x 11.1“ (26.9 x 28.2 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 9.3“ x 9.7“, and on 18-count at 8.3“ x 8.6“. A 14“ x 18“ frame leaves room for a mat.

A bright red or mustard frame suits it if it’s going on a kitchen wall.

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