Red Panda Curled in Its Tail Cross Stitch Pattern

About this red panda cross stitch pattern

A red panda sits facing you with round, startled eyes and a small open mouth, its big tail wrapped all the way around its body like a scarf. Its face is rust and cream with dark eye patches, its ears are white-edged, and its chest and arms are a deep dark brown. The tail is ringed in bold bands of rust and cream that wind around the bottom of the picture.

It’s a bold, graphic design with few fiddly details, and the curled pose makes a neat round shape for a frame or a large hoop. For more red pandas, try the Red Panda with a Steaming Mug and the Red Panda with an Acorn Lantern; our cute cross stitch round-up has more animal designs.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 16“ x 17“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 20 DMC colors, about 24 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 301 Mahogany – Medium (3,205 stitches), 918 Red Copper – Dark (2,570) and 310 Black (2,524).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Intermediate for its size: at 13,225 stitches it takes roughly 132 to 220 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour. The colors themselves are simple, with four threads making up 81% of the stitches, and about 27% of the fabric stays bare.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Buy two skeins of the four main colors. 301 Mahogany – Medium (3,205 stitches), 918 Red Copper – Dark (2,570), 310 Black (2,524) and 951 Tawny – Light (2,395) each need two skeins.
• Stitch the tail rings band by band. The rust 301 and cream 951 alternate in curved bands. Finish each band completely before the next, counting from the black outline, so the rings stay even widths.
• Separate the dark browns. 310 Black and 3371 Black Brown (873 stitches) sit side by side on the chest and arms. They look almost the same in the skein, so label them and check each block against the chart.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 9.1“ x 10.1“ (23.1 x 25.7 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 8.0“ x 8.9“, and on 18-count at 7.1“ x 7.9“. A 12“ x 16“ frame leaves room for a mat.

Its round shape also suits a 12“ hoop, finished with a rust fabric backing.

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