Gingerbread cottage with candy canes hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 4 colors · 5 kinds of stitch

Gingerbread cottage with candy canes: preview of the stitched design

A gingerbread cottage, seen from the front, stands on a white satin stitch band of icing between two candy canes in stem stitch with satin stitch stripes. The roof is six rows of round satin stitch icing tiles, pink and white by turns, under satin stitch gable boards. The wall is long and short stitch, and its icing is bare cloth: five swags under the eaves with a French knot candy in each, a border round the satin stitch door with its heart, and two round-headed windows with back stitch bars.

Size and details

Intermediate. Uses long and short stitch; from a 6 inch hoop up the widest satin stitches are long.

4 colors of floss and 5 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.7 × 1.3 in	4.3 × 3.3 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.5 × 1.9 in	6.4 × 4.8 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.4 × 2.6 in	8.6 × 6.6 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.2 × 3.2 in	10.7 × 8.1 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.9 × 4.5 in	15 × 11.4 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.
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 3781 Dark Mocha BrownGingerbread wall, gable boards and window bars
DMC 304 Medium RedCandies under the eaves, door, candy canes and stripes of the candy canes
DMC B5200 Snow WhiteWhite roof tiles, heart on the door and icing underfoot
DMC 3350 Ultra Dark Dusty RosePink roof tiles

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

Long and short stitch 1 or 2 strandsGingerbread wall
French knot 2 strands, two wrapsCandies under the eaves
Satin stitch 2 strandsRoof tiles, gable boards, door, heart on the door, stripes of the candy canes, icing underfoot
Back stitch 2 strandsWindow bars
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsCandy canes

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.