French knot heart hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 4 colors · 1 kind of stitch

French knot heart: preview of the stitched design

A heart is drawn in French knots like strings of beads, four rows deep: 60 knots round the outside, 52 in the second, 42 in the third, 34 in the fourth. Every row has a knot at its point and one in its cleft, each row is a shade paler than the last, and a heart of bare cloth is left at the middle.

Size and details

Intermediate. More than a hundred French knots.

4 colors of floss and 1 kind of stitch:

French knot
Which stitch goes where

The stitched size, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters
3 in (8 cm)	1.5 × 1.5 in	3.8 × 3.8 cm
4 in (10 cm)	2.3 × 2.2 in	5.8 × 5.6 cm
5 in (13 cm)	3.1 × 3 in	7.9 × 7.6 cm
6 in (15 cm)	3.8 × 3.7 in	9.7 × 9.4 cm
8 in (20 cm)	5.4 × 5.2 in	13.7 × 13.2 cm

In a 3 inch hoop the French knots are drawn smaller than about 2 mm (a little over 1/16 in). Use one strand of floss for them 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 304 Medium RedRow 1 of the knots
DMC 3350 Ultra Dark Dusty RoseRow 2 of the knots
DMC 152 Medium Light Shell PinkRow 3 of the knots
DMC 3779 Very Light RosewoodRow 4 of the knots

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

French knot 2 strands, two wrapsRow 1 of the knots, row 2 of the knots, row 3 of the knots, row 4 of the knots

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.