Houseplant in patterned pot hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 4 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

Houseplant in patterned pot: preview of the stitched design

A leafy house plant grows in a patterned pot: seven leaves of satin stitch on arching stalks of stem stitch fan out from the pot. The pot is outlined in stem stitch with a rim of satin stitch and carries five satin stitch diamonds inside a band of two stem stitch lines.

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.

4 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)	1.5 × 1.4 in	3.8 × 3.6 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.3 × 2.2 in	5.8 × 5.6 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.1 × 2.9 in	7.9 × 7.4 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.9 × 3.6 in	9.9 × 9.1 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.4 × 5.1 in	13.7 × 13 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 986 Very Dark Forest GreenLeaf stalks and darker half of each leaf
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenLighter half of each leaf
DMC 355 Dark Terra CottaPot outline, rim of the pot and two lines across the pot
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawDiamonds on the pot

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

Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsLeaf stalks, pot outline, two lines across the pot
Satin stitch 2 strandsLeaves (each half slanted to the center vein, in its own color), rim of the pot, diamonds on the pot

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.