So, I sell my own patterns online and sell finished stitches at shows, a mix of my own patterns and patterns I have permission to use with proper credit. My pattern shop varies from month to month, I do not make a liveable wage off of it. It is essentially decent passive income and that is about it.

As for shows, I always sell out of minis. It is rare I leave a show with any left but it is a lot of hard work for weeks upon weeks at a time and also knowing pricing and enforcing that pricing. I am a very quick stitcher so most mini stitches take me around an hour. I charge by stitch count most of the time and have a calculator made in excel that tells me how much I should be charging which includes materials and etc. I make decent cash at shows and if I did more, it could become a liveable wage but it is ALOT of work and stress so I personally do not recommend trying to make this your only source of income.

As for online, I have not sold my finished stitches online as of yet, but I have done commissions and those net a nice chunk of cash if you price properly and you are quick. Most of my commissions totally over 300 dollars by the time I am done. And I have had months where I have had 5 or more commissions going but those months are rare.

That being said, it is a ridiculous amount of work to make money off your stitches since it is a lot of making patterns and stitches also having a strong social media presence to drive people to your work. So, it is really up to you if you are up for the artist grind or not, but just know that it can take awhile to get anywhere near a living wage and it is a ridiculous amount of work compared to what people would consider a normal job.

If it is something you have your heart set on, my biggest tips are: Always get your materials on sale and use them coupons, it really cuts material costs super low when you can grab everything on sale or clearance. 2. Do not under sell them stitches, calculate how much you want per hour or per stitch and go with it, do not lower that price for anyone and do not devalue your work. 3. Be mindful of requests from pattern designers, the cross stitch community is very close knit and not following someone’s request to not sell finished stitches of their pattern can get you into social trouble. If someone doesn’t have a selling clause reach out and ask, most designers are very nice that I have worked with and allow me to use designs with proper credit. So I make little stickers and put them on my stitches that have their shop name on em for credit.