Compass rose with a sawtooth border hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 4 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Compass rose with a sawtooth border: preview of the stitched design

The compass rose has four long points to north, south, east and west and four shorter ones between them, each half dark and half light in satin stitch, round a gold satin stitch disc. The four short points end on a gold ring of stem stitch; the long points cross it and point to a border of thirty-two sawtooth points in back stitch between two more rings. Every ring repeats evenly, so it can be stitched a wedge at a time.

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)	2.6 × 2.6 in	6.6 × 6.6 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.5 × 3.5 in	8.9 × 8.9 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.4 × 4.4 in	11.2 × 11.2 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	6.1 × 6.1 in	15.5 × 15.5 cm	3/8 in (10 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 3852 Very Dark StrawInner ring and middle
DMC 355 Dark Terra CottaRust points
DMC 3755 Baby BlueBlue points
DMC 336 Navy BlueOuter ring and navy points

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 strandsRing
Satin stitch 2 strandsSolid points, middle
Back stitch 2 strandsOutlined points

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.