Made by a dad and his daughter
PixelFloss started at Dragon Con. My 9-year-old daughter had just picked up cross stitch, and at one of the vendor tables we found a set of little pixel-art kits: characters from a video game she loves, each one stitched in a handful of flat colors. She loved them.
Looking at those kits, something clicked. Pixel art is already a cross stitch chart. One pixel is one stitch, and a few flat colors means a few skeins of floss. A kid who can draw on a grid can design their own pattern.
So we went looking for a tool to do that, and didn't find one that fit. Most pattern makers are built to turn photos into detailed charts with dozens of colors, for stitchers who already know what they're doing. We wanted something simpler: a grid, real thread colors, and a printout a beginner can actually follow to the end.
So we built the one we wanted. It has big, friendly controls for whoever is drawing, every color is a real DMC floss number, and a meter nudges you toward a handful of colors. The printout does the grown-up part: a shopping list, a chart, and a page for each color with a box to color in when it's done.
Using it with your kid
It works best side by side. Let your kid drive the drawing while you keep an eye on the color count and the size. If a blank grid feels like a lot, start from one of the starter designs and change it. A small design, 16 or 24 stitches across, makes a good first project because it can be finished in a few sittings.
When it's time to stitch, the first page of the pattern tells you what to buy. Fold the fabric in half both ways to find the middle, pick one color, and work through that color's page before moving on.
A small project
This is a side project from one family. It's free to use, there are no accounts, and your designs never leave your browser. The privacy page has the details.