Cross stitching in Spain (on a budget!)

For a couple of months now I've been feeling a slight disconnect when watching FlossTube from the US and UK. I love watching these channels, but as a Spaniard living in southern Spain, sometimes I don't feel as identified with these FlossTubers, because their access to patterns and kits seems to be a lot easier than over here, and I feel a bit at a loss as to how go around getting patterns I like. So I've been trying to find my own way of doing things, and I've been watching Spanish FlossTube to see how people cross stitch over here. The following is a summary of what I've gathered so far.

The sad truth is that we have a weaker economy than in the rest of Europe, and to add insult to injury, cross stitch supplies such as DMC thread, Linen, and Mill Hills Beads are not only rare, but extremely expensive. As for Kreinik thread and hand dyed fabrics, the one embroidery shop in my town doesn't carry them. Add to that the shipping costs it might take to get that specific pattern or kit or fabric that you really want, and we're in trouble. In short, cross stitching can be an expensive hobby here (there is a reason why Andromeda was a gift!)

So with that in mind, here is what I've learned from Spanish FlossTubers, about how normal people get around to making beautiful patterns without breaking the bank:

Beads

As it turns out, when stitching Mirabilia patterns, not everyone goes for the traditional Mill Hills beads. Instead, many people are using beads that they find at our version of the "dollar stores". I went to Tedi today and found a few beads:

Beads from Tedi

And I'm lucky, because I used to be really into beading some years ago, so I have a lot of beads lying around the place!

Some of these beads are from my local embroidery shop, others are from China, and others were gifts from friends. They might not be "top notch" quality, but guys, when you compare them to Mill Hills... There's just not enough of a difference in my mind to justify spending the extra expense, see for yourselves:

Mill Hills Beads vs Chinese beads

I have just about every color of those Chinese beads available, and their size and the way they shine are almost identical to Mill Hills. I think you can accomplish a pretty similar effect on a cross stitch piece if you really wanted to! And if you're like me and want to save some money while still enjoying this hobby, I think it's a pretty good option.

Fabric

The one tiny embroidery shop in my town carries exactly two types of Aida: white and ivory, 14 count. If you want another count or linen or hand dyed, you better look online and be ready to pay the steep shipping prices. 

So what do people do? They hand dye their own fabrics. But using our local brands, which are inexpensive and work just as well as the more expensive American brands (for the longest time, I thought I couldn't afford to hand dye my own fabric! Thank you, Spanish FlossTube!)

We have this sweet little brand of hand dye named Iberia that has been around since my grandmother's time and has been used by people since then. I just hadn't thought about using it for Aida, but duh! Of course I can! 

This video from Paloma y Punto was the one that made me realize that we have this hand dye brand here, and it was nice to see the results! So I'll be trying it out at some stage and posting the results here.

Chinese Kits

Now this is a thorny one, I know. I mentioned Chinese Kits on Reddit once and several people went berserk about copyright issues and whatnot, which I can totally understand. But honestly, like many of the Spanish and Russian FlossTubers out there say... I have no issue buying them if I have no easy, affordable access to the originals. As I have tried to convey, I have no physical access to most patterns or kits, although Spanish Amazon does carry a few, thankfully. There is also the option of ordering from Sewandso.co.uk or 123stitch.com of course, if you can pay the shipping costs. So yeah, I understand why some people just give up and go for the Chinese Kits.

So I've gone ahead and bought a few. These are kits that I haven't been able to find anywhere else other than AliExpress, so if you know the artists, designers, or original brands, please do let me know and I'll at least credit them on here:

(Since buying this kit, I have learned that 
the name of the designer is Ekaterina Babok,
 and the supplier is Luca-S, a Moldovan company)

The one exception was this pattern by Dimensions, Baby Bluejays, which I think has been discontinued because I can't find it anywhere other than secondhand sellers on Amazon from the US, and I seem to remember there being an issue there... Either they didn't ship it to Spain or the prices were insane. So I went ahead and got the knockoff:

And I won't deny it: I'm extremely happy to have gotten these kits at a price I can afford! It's very liberating.

So that's all for now. I don't know how it'll go with these kits, whether they'll be any good, but for now I do like the quality of the items. I'll post it all here anyway so you'll know the result of my experiment! For now I'm just happy to be learning how to be more frugal in my cross stitch spending, as it makes it a lot more realistic and enjoyable for me. 

Thanks for reading and happy stitching everyone! :)