Santa’s magic key with a star hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 3 colors · 1 kind of stitch

Santa’s magic key with a star: preview of the stitched design

A magic key stands upright: its handle is a ring that holds a five-point star, and under a collar the shaft is tied with a ribbon bow whose two tails fall to either side of it, above the bit, the toothed end of the key, cut the same to each side. The key is satin stitch throughout, the star is ten facets of satin stitch, yellow and gold by turns, whose points end on the ring, and the bow is satin stitch laid across the ribbon.

Size and details

Easy. In a hoop of 6 inches or less: short satin stitches, no shading; in a larger hoop the widest 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)	0.8 × 1.8 in	2 × 4.6 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	1.2 × 2.7 in	3 × 6.9 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	1.6 × 3.6 in	4.1 × 9.1 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	2 × 4.6 in	5.1 × 11.7 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	2.8 × 6.4 in	7.1 × 16.3 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)

The pattern is drawn inside a circle about half an inch (1.3 cm) smaller all around than the hoop.

What you need

DMC 726 Light TopazYellow facets of the star
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawGold facets of the star, shaft of the key, tip of the key, bit of the key, ring of the key and collar of the key
DMC 304 Medium RedTails of the bow, loops of the bow and knot of the bow

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 strandsStar, shaft of the key, tip of the key, bit of the key, ring of the key, collar of the key, tails of the bow, loops of the bow, knot of the bow

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.