Pleated red ribbon bow hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 3 colors · 1 kind of stitch

Pleated red ribbon bow: preview of the stitched design

A full bow of wide ribbon is seen from the front, the same left and right. Five pleats fan out from each side of the knot, red and rust by turns, with red at the top and the foot of each fan. The knot is garnet with a red knot fold down its middle. Two tails part below the knot and spread as they fall; each tail is red along its outer half and rust along its inner half, and its end is cut in a notch. The tails, the pleats, the knot and the knot fold are all satin stitch.

Size and details

Intermediate. Satin stitch over about a quarter of the cloth in a 6 inch hoop; from a 6 inch hoop up some of the satin stitches are long.

3 colors of floss and 1 kind of stitch:

Satin stitch
Which stitch goes where

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.5 × 1.6 in	3.8 × 4.1 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.2 × 2.4 in	5.6 × 6.1 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	2.9 × 3.2 in	7.4 × 8.1 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.7 × 4 in	9.4 × 10.2 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.1 × 5.6 in	13 × 14.2 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 304 Medium RedRed half of each tail, red pleats and knot fold
DMC 355 Dark Terra CottaRust half of each tail and rust pleats
DMC 815 Medium GarnetKnot

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 strandsTails, pleats, knot, knot fold

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.