Review | The X-Zone Cross-Stitch iPhone Case Kit by Coats & Clark

Reported by Maria del Pinto

A new cool cross-stitch iPhone case kit that allows me to personalize my iPhone case is the latest trend in iPhone related crafting products.

iPhone Cross Stitch Case Case by Coats & Clark

Coats & Clark offers a fabulous one that lets me decide how I want my case to look.

First, lets review what comes in the box:

  • A silicone iPhone case (fits iPhone 4 and 4s)
  • An assortment of embroidery thread in six colors
  • An embroidery needle
  • An instruction and pattern book.

iPhone Cross Stitch Kit Contents from Coats & Clark

The kit offers enough supplies to create one of the designs offered in the pattern book.

iPhone Cross Stitch Kit Coats & Clark Pattern Chart

The pattern book itself is pretty straight forward.  It offers a short tutorial on how to do the various stitches, and how to read their patterns.  This is helpful for a novice crafter who is new to cross-stitch. The four patterns are very easy to read.

The silicone case is what I really like.  I liked the texture of the case.  The stitching holes are placed strategically to make cross stitching a design quick and easy.

iPhone Cross Stitch Kit silicone case from Coats & Clark

The instructions offer two blank templates so that you can create  your own cross-stitch or embroidery design for the iPhone case.  Some embroidery stitches would not work on this case but if you stick to the simpler ones, it can be done.

I chose the black design because it reminds me of "Blackwork" stitchery.  Since everything is included in the kit (except scissors),  it was pretty easy to take the kit with me to work on while waiting to pick up my daughter from one of her activities.  I made some changes from the Coats & Clark design to suit my personal design aesthetic.

iPhone silicone cross-stitch case kit from Coats & Clark

I showed this kit to my teenager, who loved it and wanted one of her own.  She has not shown a real interest in doing cross-stitch before, but the chance to create her own design won her over.  I personally liked the kit and would recommend it to anyone who wants to create something unique for their iPhone 4 or 4s.  There are several other iPhone stitchery case kits available from different manufacturers but this one is the one that impressed me the most.  The instructions are clear, concise and easy to follow which makes creating the cover fun to do.

Pros:

  • The instructions are well written and easy to follow.
  • There are enough supplies that if you make a mistake, you still have enough thread to finish the project.
  • You can personalize it and make up your own design.

Cons:

  • Sadly the name that the manufacturer chose for this kit makes it very difficult to do a Google search to find the product at the best price.  There is nothing in the product title that will pick up on a search for a personalized cross-stitch iPhone case kit. So you would have to search by it’s name  “X-zone” instead of “cross-stitch cellphone” case kit.  Even searching by the "X-zone" name will pull up a lot of unrelated sites.  That can be frustrating when trying to find a vendor to purchase it from.
  • The embroidery colors offered are mostly pastels, which conflict with the color of the silicone covers.
  • The instructions were not completely accurate on the pattern I choose but I easily adjusted it to suit the number of holes available on my cover.

So what do you think about the trend to personalize cellphones? What method do you prefer?

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