Forked tail swallow in flight hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 4 colors · 1 kind of stitch

Forked tail swallow in flight: preview of the stitched design

A swallow is seen from above in flight, its wings spread to each side, its head at the top and its forked tail below. Each wing is a row of flight feathers, navy and blue by turns, below a row of rounded pale blue wing coverts, the short feathers that cover their bases. The head and the back are navy, with a small orange beak at the top. The tail has two long navy tail streamers that curve outward to fine points, with two short, broad blue inner tail feathers between them. Every part is satin stitch.

Size and details

Intermediate. Long satin stitches from a 5 inch hoop up.

4 colors of floss and 1 kind of stitch:

Satin stitch
Which stitch goes where

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	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.7 × 2.7 in	6.9 × 6.9 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.5 × 3.5 in	8.9 × 8.9 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.4 × 4.4 in	11.2 × 11.2 cm	1/2 in (13 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	6.2 × 6.2 in	15.7 × 15.7 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 BlueNavy flight feathers, tail streamers, back and head
DMC 322 Dark Baby BlueBlue flight feathers and inner tail feathers
DMC 3755 Baby BlueWing coverts
DMC 922 Light CopperBeak

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 strandsFlight feathers, wing coverts, tail streamers, inner tail feathers, beak, back, head

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.