Birdhouse with climbing vine hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 5 colors · 4 kinds of stitch

Birdhouse with climbing vine: preview of the stitched design

A birdhouse on a post, seen from the front, stands on a green satin stitch ground line with a flowering vine climbing from the foot of the post at each side. The roof is five rows of round satin stitch tiles, teal and sky blue by turns, under satin stitch gable boards; the corner posts at the two sides of the house, the door hole, the floor, the brackets under it and the post it stands on are satin stitch, and the perch is a French knot. Each vine is pairs of fishbone stitch leaves on a stem stitch stem ending in a flower of five satin stitch petals.

Size and details

Intermediate. Long satin stitches from a 6 inch hoop up.

5 colors of floss and 4 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.4 × 1.5 in	3.6 × 3.8 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.2 × 2.3 in	5.6 × 5.8 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	2.9 × 3 in	7.4 × 7.6 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.6 × 3.8 in	9.1 × 9.7 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5 × 5.3 in	12.7 × 13.5 cm	9/16 in (14 mm)

In an 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 9/16 in (14 mm) across. Satin stitches longer than about 12 mm (just under 1/2 in) tend to work loose: divide the shape into sections, or work it in long and short stitch.
In a 3 or 4 inch hoop the French knots are drawn smaller than about 2 mm (a little over 1/16 in). Use one strand of floss for them there, or choose a larger hoop.

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

What you need

DMC 3781 Dark Mocha BrownPost, brackets, corner posts, gable boards, door hole, perch and floor
DMC 3809 Very Dark TurquoiseTeal roof tiles
DMC 3755 Baby BlueBlue roof tiles and middles of the flowers
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenStems, vine leaves and ground
DMC 3350 Ultra Dark Dusty RoseFlowers

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

Satin stitch 2 strandsPost, brackets, corner posts, roof tiles, gable boards, door hole, floor, flowers, ground
French knot 2 strands, two wrapsPerch, middles of the flowers
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsStems
Fishbone stitch 2 strandsVine leaves

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.