Rainbow stacking rings hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 6 colors · 1 kind of stitch

Rainbow stacking rings: preview of the stitched design

A toy of five stacking rings sits on its stand and is seen from the front. The stand is a flat navy slab, a little wider than the lowest ring. The rings rest one on another and grow narrower as they go up: red at the foot, then orange, gold, green and blue. Above the blue ring a short navy post rises to a navy ball. Every part is satin stitch: the stand, the five rings, the post and the ball on the post, each ring one solid shape in its own color.

Size and details

Intermediate. Satin stitch over about a fifth of the cloth in a 6 inch hoop; from a 5 inch hoop up some of the satin stitches are long.

6 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 in	3.8 × 2.5 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.2 × 1.6 in	5.6 × 4.1 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3 × 2.1 in	7.6 × 5.3 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.7 × 2.6 in	9.4 × 6.6 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.2 × 3.6 in	13.2 × 9.1 cm	5/8 in (16 mm)

In an 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 5/8 in (16 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 336 Navy BlueStand, post and ball on the post
DMC 304 Medium RedRed ring
DMC 922 Light CopperOrange ring
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawGold ring
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenGreen ring
DMC 3755 Baby BlueBlue ring

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 strandsStand, rings, post, ball on the post

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.