Create a Charted Alphabet from a Few Letters

I bought this cross stitch design from The Boho Stitcher on Etsy recently. Not only did I love the snarky saying, I adore the Arts & Crafts lettering. Stitching it got me thinking about doing another saying but I don’t have all the letters I need.

This doesn’t need to be an obstacle because with a little bit of work, you can turn many charted letters into the other letters in the alphabet. You can see how this is done with the charts below.

Turn “A” into “V” by turning it upside down and removing the cross bars:

Turn “E” into “F” by removing the bottom bar:

Turn “O” into “Q” by adding the line on the bottom right of the letter:

Turn “C” into “G” and “D” by flipping it and adding the vertical line for D or by extending the bottom up and adding a small horizontal line for G:

Turn “R” into “P” “K” and “B” by removing the diagonal line for P, by removing the top of the loop for K, and by turning the diagonal line into a loop for B:

Turn “M” into “W” by flipping it over (in many alphabets M and W are different but this works):

Turn “T” into “I” by shortening the top bar and adding a similar bar to the bottom:

Turn “S” into “Z” by flipping it around (Z has sharper corners than S which you can make by filling them in as on the chart):

Turn “E” into “H” by removing the top and bottom bars and adding a vertical line on the right side:

There are only five letters that aren’t in this list: j, n, u, x, and y. Once you get the hang of converting the letters, you can probably make those as well. And some of then might even be in your source letters.

Remember that these conversions go both ways. So if your saying has a G but you need a C, perform the conversion in reverse.

I have done these kinds of conversions for many styles of alphabets. They will not work for script letters because the relationships are not the same. They are more difficult to do with italic and embellished alphabets. For the majority of alphabets it is very easy to do.

Letters come in all kinds of styles and it can be hard to make an entire alphabet that is consistent. Not only do you need to be concerned about width and height, you need to think about shape, flourishes, and proportion. When you start with the letters in a saying many of these aspects have been decided for you. You have a pattern you can use to make additional letters consistent with the ones you have.