Airplane seen from above hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 4 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Airplane seen from above: preview of the stitched design

An airplane seen from straight above has a cloud each side and an engine with its propeller on each wing. The body, the wings and the tailplane are outlined in stem stitch and each cloud is two rows of chain stitch; the nose, the cockpit glass, the stripes across the wings and the tailplane, the long stripe down the body, the engines and the propellers are satin stitch.

Size and details

Easy. In a hoop of 6 inches or less: short satin stitches, no shading; in a larger hoop the widest satin stitches are long.

4 colors of floss and 3 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.8 × 1.8 in	4.6 × 4.6 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.7 × 2.6 in	6.9 × 6.6 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.6 × 3.5 in	9.1 × 8.9 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.5 × 4.4 in	11.4 × 11.2 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	6.3 × 6.1 in	16 × 15.5 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)

The pattern is drawn inside a circle about half an inch (1.3 cm) smaller all around than the hoop.

What you need

DMC 3755 Baby BlueOutlines of the clouds and cockpit glass
DMC 336 Navy BlueOutlines of the wings, propellers, tailplane outline and body outline
DMC 304 Medium RedWing stripes, red band on each engine, tail stripes, nose and body stripe
DMC 414 Dark Steel GrayEngines and caps of the propellers

The floss is six-strand cotton; the stitch guide says how many strands to use. You also need a hoop, an embroidery needle (a size 7 to 9 suits two or three strands) and plain cotton or linen fabric. To frame the piece in its hoop, cut a square 3 inches (8 cm) wider than the hoop: a 9 inch (23 cm) square for a 6 inch hoop.

Stitch guide

Chain stitch 2 or 3 strandsOutlines of the clouds
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsOutlines of the wings, tailplane outline, body outline
Satin stitch 2 strandsWing stripes, engines, red band on each engine, propellers, caps of the propellers, tail stripes, nose, cockpit glass, body stripe

Getting it onto your fabric

The PDF holds the pattern twice at actual size: once as drawn, and once mirrored for an iron-on transfer pen. Print it at 100% with scaling off and check the one-inch square (25.4 mm) with a ruler before you trace. How to transfer a pattern explains tracing, carbon paper and the other ways. The files are under Downloads.