Rooster on a weathervane hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 4 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Rooster on a weathervane: preview of the stitched design

A rooster stands on the arrow of a weathervane and faces right, the way the arrow points. Its body is outlined in brown stem stitch, with a brown French knot for the eye. Three tail plumes arch behind it, red, gold and red from the top down, and it has a gold cape with a scalloped hem, a red wing, comb and wattle, and a gold beak, legs and feet. The weathervane is navy: the arrow has its point at the right and two flights at the left, and under it the post runs down through a star to a base, where a stem stitch scroll curls up on each side. Everything else is satin stitch.

Size and details

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

4 colors of floss and 3 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 × 1.8 in	4.8 × 4.6 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.8 × 2.7 in	7.1 × 6.9 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.7 × 3.5 in	9.4 × 8.9 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.7 × 4.4 in	11.9 × 11.2 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	6.5 × 6.2 in	16.5 × 15.7 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.
In a 3 or 4 inch hoop the French knot is drawn smaller than about 2 mm (a little over 1/16 in). Use one strand of floss for it there, or choose a larger hoop.

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 BluePost, scrolls, base, arrow, arrow point, arrow flights and star
DMC 304 Medium RedOuter tail plumes, comb, wing and wattle
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawMiddle tail plume, legs, feet, cape and beak
DMC 3781 Dark Mocha BrownRooster outline and eye

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 strandsPost, base, arrow, arrow point, arrow flights, star, tail plumes, legs, feet, comb, cape, wing, wattle, beak
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsScrolls, rooster outline
French knot 2 strands, two wrapsEye

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.