House in a wreath hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 5 colors · 4 kinds of stitch

House in a wreath: preview of the stitched design

A little house stands inside a wreath of leaves, seen from the front. The roof is six rows of round tiles in satin stitch, navy and sky blue by turns, under satin stitch gable boards; the corner posts are satin stitch, the round-headed windows are stem stitch and back stitch, and the red door is satin stitch with a heart let into it. From each end of the ground a stem stitch branch with pairs of fishbone stitch leaves curves round the house, and the last two leaves all but meet above the roof.

Size and details

Intermediate. Long satin stitches from a 6 inch hoop up.

5 colors of floss and 4 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.9 × 1.4 in	4.8 × 3.6 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.8 × 2.1 in	7.1 × 5.3 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.7 × 2.8 in	9.4 × 7.1 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.7 × 3.5 in	11.9 × 8.9 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	6.5 × 4.9 in	16.5 × 12.4 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.

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 BrownCorner posts, gable boards, window frames and window bars
DMC 336 Navy BlueNavy roof tiles
DMC 3755 Baby BlueBlue roof tiles and heart on the door
DMC 304 Medium RedDoor
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenBranches, leaves of the wreath and ground

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 strandsCorner posts, roof tiles, gable boards, door, heart on the door, ground
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsWindow frames, branches
Back stitch 2 strandsWindow bars
Fishbone stitch 2 strandsLeaves of the wreath

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.