Royal wedding: Kate Middleton cross-stitch pattern

The craft world loves a good excuse to break its needles out. Be it a general election, a presidential inauguration or the rise of a certain vampire trilogy, whenever something big happens you'll find someone, somewhere, has crafted something relevant.

The royal wedding has certainly been no exception – I'd even say it's been one of the most popular crafting events of the last few years. Everyone seems to have jumped on the handmade bandwagon. There's been the infamous Knit Your Own Royal Wedding book (so popular it's on its zillionth reprint), those fetching Will and Kate knitted gloves (complete with knitted sapphire ring, of course) while, back in February, Piccadilly Circus got it's own knitted tribute to the wedding in the form of a yarnstorm on the Eros statue. Marketplace for handmade goods Etsy has an entire category dedicated to the big day (Kate and Will earrings anyone?) and Hannah Read-Baldrey, co-author of soon-to-be-published craft book Everything Alice, has written step-by-step instructions on how to have the perfectly crafted street party.

We've seen events galore too, with exclusive creative industries hangout The Hospital Club opening its doors to the public a fortnight ago for a royal wedding craft fest, where everything from the handprinted tea towels to the decoupaged suitcases were wedding-themed. Last week, the magnificent food artist Miss Cakehead gathered an army of bakers for the day to man a "Will and Cake" pop-up bakery. Things are scheduled right up to the big day itself, with Glasgow cafe the Life Craft promising to begin sewing a replica of Kate's wedding dress as soon as she's spotted on Friday. They'll be tweeting, status-updating and possibly even streaming the whole thing on webcam.

And there's plenty more. I haven't even got to the cross-stitchers yet, who seem to be collectively making the biggest impact. Both big cross-stitch magazines led with Kate and Will patterns in the months ahead of the wedding, while contemporary cross-stitch heavyweights Subversive Cross Stitch and Mr X Stitch collaborated on this brilliant "Keep Calm and Marry On" ode to the royal engagement and the coalition. All over the interweb you can find pattern after pattern after pattern (we like Bugs and Fishes's mini-design, perfect for beginners if you're not too fussed about the more fusty kits).

Cross stitch, then, is clearly the craft of choice for anyone already over the knitted royal wedding. Which is why, this week, you'll find us stitching up this delightful pattern from CrossStitcher magazine's stitch a star series. What better way to celebrating Catherine Elizabeth Middleton's newly cemented status as Lost in Showbiz dahling/trashy sleb rag fodder than with a crafted picture of her face?

Ok, it might take you a few days of solid stitching to complete, but we all know the country can be split into two groups of people this week: those who were wise enough to take Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off (but don't actually know how to fill the resulting 11-day holiday) and those who weren't (but know they won't be doing much real work from now until Thursday night). If you're already a cross-stitch whiz, check out the key to the right so you know which threads to buy. If you're not head over to CrossStitcher's blog, where they have put together a complete guide for beginners. And if you find yourself at a loose end later in the week having stitched the whole thing, you can find a stitch-a-star Prince William in the new issue of CrossStitcher, on sale now.

And if you really, really haven't taken a fancy to this royal wedding malarkey (even after Hadley Freeman told you to stop acting like "a goth teenager sulking in your room to The Cure on Christmas Day"), allow me to introduce anarchist crafter Carrie Reichardt, whose anti-royal take on Friday's wedding might be right up your street. Take a look at a sample of her recent ceramics exhibition in Brighton, Mad in England, or buy a piece of her alternative china collection, entitled "Right Royal Mug".