Cat face with a bow hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 4 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Cat face with a bow: preview of the stitched design

A cat’s face is seen from the front with a ribbon bow tied at its chin and a star at each side of the bow. The outline of the head, with its two pointed ears, is one line of navy stem stitch, and the mouth and the whiskers that fan out across each cheek are navy stem stitch too. The insides of the ears and the nose are pink, the eyes are gold with upright navy pupils, the bow and the bow tails are orange and the stars are gold, all in satin stitch. The bow knot is padded satin stitch.

Size and details

Intermediate. Long satin stitches from a 5 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)	1.5 × 1.5 in	3.8 × 3.8 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.3 × 2.2 in	5.8 × 5.6 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.1 × 3 in	7.9 × 7.6 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.9 × 3.7 in	9.9 × 9.4 cm	1/2 in (13 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.4 × 5.2 in	13.7 × 13.2 cm	11/16 in (17 mm)

In a 6 or 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 1/2 in (13 mm) or more 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 336 Navy BlueOutline of the head, pupils, mouth and whiskers
DMC 3350 Ultra Dark Dusty RoseInsides of the ears and nose
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawEyes and stars
DMC 922 Light CopperBow, bow tails and bow knot

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 strandsOutline of the head, mouth, whiskers
Satin stitch 2 strandsInsides of the ears, eyes, pupils, nose, bow, bow tails, stars
Padded satin stitch 2 strandsBow knot

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.