Designs that are created by working whole cross stitches tend to have a jagged appearance to the edges of blocks of colour as each cross stitch creates a square shape. Fractional cross stitch helps to define a curved shape at the edge of the design or highlight a curve within the design. You can have ¼ , ½ or ¾ fractional stitches.

To make a ¼ stitch:

The ¼ stitches will look like this on your chart:

Depending at what angle the ¼ stitch is to be, bring the needle up at point A1, B1, C1 or D1 and then push it down into the centre of the square at A2, B2, C2 or D2.

To make a ½ stitch:

The ½ stitch is shown as below. 

Depending at what angle the ½ stitch is to be, bring the needle up at point 1 and down through the centre of the fabric at at point 2. Then bring the needle up at point 3 and down through the centre of the fabric at at point 4.

 To make a ¾ stitch:

A ¾ stitch is made by stitching the short arm first (like a ¼ stitch) It is then completed with a diagonal stitch to make the other two arms.

The ¾ stitches will look like this on your chart:

Bring the needle up at point 1, down at point 2, up at point 3 and down at point 4.

Mixed ¼ and ¾ Stitches

When you want to create a 'curved' shape or to show a layer* within a cross stitch design where two colours meet, this is done by using a ¼ stitch in one colour and a ¾ stitch in another.

* A layer could be where a birds wing lies over its body or a petal is lying on top of another.

Your chart will show this as below where the pink stitch is the ¾ stitch and the green stitch is the ¼ stitch :

With the limited space within the cell of the chart itself, it is difficult to show which of the colours should be the ¼ and which the ¾ stitch. so, have a look at the image of the design and see where the curve or layering is created and make the ¾ stitch the one which will be on top.

In the example below you can see that pupil of the eye needs to be rounded and look like it sits above the coloured part.