Dogwood vine heart hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 5 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Dogwood vine heart: preview of the stitched design

A heart is drawn by two leafy branches: they rise from a dogwood at the point, swell out, round over the lobes and turn under in a small curl each side of the cleft, clothed with pairs of leaves as far as the curl. The dogwood has four notched bracts, the broad leaves that look like its petals, in a deeper and a paler pink, worked in satin stitch round a small green satin stitch button with a yellow French knot at its center. The branches are stem stitch and the leaves are satin stitch in a dark and a light green.

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.

5 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)	1.6 × 1.7 in	4.1 × 4.3 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.4 × 2.6 in	6.1 × 6.6 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.2 × 3.4 in	8.1 × 8.6 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.1 × 4.3 in	10.4 × 10.9 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.7 × 6 in	14.5 × 15.2 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)

In a 3 or 4 inch hoop the French knot is drawn smaller than about 2 mm (a little over 1/16 in). Use one strand of floss for it 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 986 Very Dark Forest GreenBranches and darker half of each leaf
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenLighter half of each leaf and dogwood button
DMC 152 Medium Light Shell PinkDarker pink dogwood bracts
DMC 3779 Very Light RosewoodLighter pink dogwood bracts
DMC 726 Light TopazDogwood center

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 strandsBranches
Satin stitch 2 strandsLeaves (each half slanted to the center vein, in its own color), dogwood bracts, dogwood button
French knot 2 strands, two wrapsDogwood center

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.