Bumblebee in honeycomb hexagon hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 4 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Bumblebee in honeycomb hexagon: preview of the stitched design

A plump bumblebee with four wings and six legs sits inside a hexagon of honeycomb. The comb is a ring of cells with walls of stem stitch, and ten of the cells hold a smaller cell of honey in satin stitch. The head, the eyes and the bands of the body of the bee are satin stitch; the wings are outlined in stem stitch with veins of back stitch, and the feelers and the legs are stem stitch.

Size and details

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

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)	1.9 × 1.7 in	4.8 × 4.3 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.9 × 2.6 in	7.4 × 6.6 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.8 × 3.4 in	9.7 × 8.6 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.8 × 4.3 in	12.2 × 10.9 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	6.7 × 6 in	17 × 15.2 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.

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 BrownWalls of the comb, feelers, legs, eyes, brown bands of the abdomen and brown thorax
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawHoney, head, gold band of the abdomen and gold thorax
DMC 336 Navy BlueOutlines of the hind wings, hind wing veins, outlines of the fore wings and fore wing veins
DMC 543 Ultra Very Light BeigeCream bands of the abdomen

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

Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsWalls of the comb, feelers, legs, outlines of the hind wings, outlines of the fore wings
Satin stitch 2 strandsHoney, head, eyes, bands of the abdomen, thorax
Back stitch 2 strandsHind wing veins, fore wing veins

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.