Orange and gold eye feather hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 4 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

Orange and gold eye feather: preview of the stitched design

One feather stands upright on a straight shaft. At its top is the eye of the feather: three drop shapes one inside another in stem stitch, rust on the outside, then orange, then gold, around a teal satin stitch center. Below the eye six pairs of curved barbs grow from the shaft, each pair rising to left and right, in satin stitch, orange and gold by turns from the top pair down, with bare cloth between each pair and the next. The shaft is rust stem stitch and runs on below the last pair to the foot.

Size and details

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

4 colors of floss and 2 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	0.8 × 1.9 in	2 × 4.8 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	1.2 × 2.9 in	3 × 7.4 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	1.6 × 3.8 in	4.1 × 9.7 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	2 × 4.8 in	5.1 × 12.2 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	2.7 × 6.7 in	6.9 × 17 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 922 Light CopperOrange barbs and middle drop of the eye
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawGold barbs and inner drop of the eye
DMC 355 Dark Terra CottaShaft and outer drop of the eye
DMC 3809 Very Dark TurquoiseCenter of the eye

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 strandsBarbs, center of the eye
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsShaft, drops of the eye

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.