Redwork Christmas pudding with holly hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 1 color · 2 kinds of stitch

Redwork Christmas pudding with holly: preview of the stitched design

This is a redwork Christmas pudding on a stand, the same on both sides. The pudding is round, and icing covers its top and runs down the front in five drips, the second and the fourth the longest. On top sit three round berries with two spined holly leaves rising behind them, one leaning to each side. The stand is a long flat plate, and the foot of the stand flares down to a flat base. The stand, its foot, the pudding, the icing, the berries and the holly leaves are stem stitch, and the veins of the holly are back stitch. It is all one red thread, with no filled shapes.

Size and details

Easy. Line stitches only, but a good deal of line to work.

1 color of floss and 2 kinds of stitch, all of them line stitches:

The stitched size, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters
3 in (8 cm)	1.6 × 1.7 in	4.1 × 4.3 cm
4 in (10 cm)	2.4 × 2.6 in	6.1 × 6.6 cm
5 in (13 cm)	3.2 × 3.4 in	8.1 × 8.6 cm
6 in (15 cm)	4 × 4.3 in	10.2 × 10.9 cm
8 in (20 cm)	5.6 × 6 in	14.2 × 15.2 cm

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 RedStand, foot of the stand, berries, pudding, icing, holly leaves and veins of the holly

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 strandsStand, foot of the stand, berries, pudding, icing, holly leaves
Back stitch 2 strandsVeins of the holly

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.