French fries in a striped carton hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 3 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

French fries in a striped carton: preview of the stitched design

A carton of French fries is seen from the front. Nine fries stand in the carton in two rows, fanned a little: five gold fries in front and four yellow fries behind them, each standing above the gold fries beside it, all in satin stitch worked across each fry. The carton narrows toward its foot, and its top edge dips in the middle above a plain band. Below the band, three red stripes of the carton run down to the foot in satin stitch, with bare cloth between them. The carton outline is red stem stitch.

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.

3 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)	1 × 1.4 in	2.5 × 3.6 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	1.4 × 2.1 in	3.6 × 5.3 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	1.9 × 2.8 in	4.8 × 7.1 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	2.4 × 3.5 in	6.1 × 8.9 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	3.3 × 4.8 in	8.4 × 12.2 cm	7/16 in (11 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 726 Light TopazYellow fries
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawGold fries
DMC 304 Medium RedStripes of the carton and carton outline

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 strandsFries, stripes of the carton
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsCarton outline

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.