Long finial ornament hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 3 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

Long finial ornament: preview of the stitched design

A long finial ornament, a Christmas tree ornament that narrows to a point, has a gold cap and a hanging loop at the top. From the top down it has a round ball, a narrow waist, a smaller bulb and a point that ends in a gold bead. The top of the ball, the waist and the point are red satin stitch. Across the ball five upright diamonds, navy and red by turns, stand on bare cloth between two gold bands, and across the bulb three more stand between two bands of their own. The bands, the diamonds, the bead and the cap are satin stitch; the outline of the finial is navy stem stitch and the hanging loop gold stem stitch.

Size and details

Intermediate. Long satin stitches from a 4 inch hoop up.

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)	0.8 × 1.9 in	2 × 4.8 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	1.2 × 2.9 in	3 × 7.4 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	1.6 × 3.9 in	4.1 × 9.9 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	2 × 4.9 in	5.1 × 12.4 cm	9/16 in (14 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	2.8 × 6.8 in	7.1 × 17.3 cm	13/16 in (21 mm)

In a 6 or 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 1/2 in (13 mm) or more 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 304 Medium RedTop of the ball, waist, point and red diamonds
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawBands, bead at the point, hanging loop, crown of the cap and collar of the cap
DMC 336 Navy BlueNavy diamonds and outline of the finial

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 strandsTop of the ball, waist, point, bands, navy diamonds, red diamonds, bead at the point, crown of the cap, collar of the cap
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsOutline of the finial, hanging loop

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.