Fly stitch snowflake hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 3 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Fly stitch snowflake: preview of the stitched design

A snowflake with six long arms and six short ones is worked almost wholly in fly stitch. Each long arm is a column of four navy fly stitches, each stitch a V held down at its point by a tail; the tails join end to end to make the arm, and the V shapes open outward and grow smaller toward the tip. Between each two long arms stands a short teal arm of one fly stitch. At the center a ring of blue stem stitch surrounds one blue French knot.

Size and details

Easy. Simple stitches in three colors.

3 colors of floss and 3 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters
3 in (8 cm)	1.6 × 1.8 in	4.1 × 4.6 cm
4 in (10 cm)	2.5 × 2.7 in	6.4 × 6.9 cm
5 in (13 cm)	3.3 × 3.5 in	8.4 × 8.9 cm
6 in (15 cm)	4.1 × 4.4 in	10.4 × 11.2 cm
8 in (20 cm)	5.8 × 6.2 in	14.7 × 15.7 cm

In a 3 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 336 Navy BlueLong arms of the snowflake
DMC 3809 Very Dark TurquoiseShort arms of the snowflake
DMC 3755 Baby BlueRing at the center and knot at the 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

Fly stitch 2 strandsLong arms of the snowflake, short arms of the snowflake
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsRing at the center
French knot 2 strands, two wrapsKnot at the 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.