Christmas bauble with scallop bands hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 3 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

Christmas bauble with scallop bands: preview of the stitched design

A round Christmas bauble has a gold cap and a hanging loop at its top. Round its middle hang two rows of scallops, the upper scallops red and the lower scallops green, each row running from edge to edge. A row of red drops runs above the scallops and another below, each row between two gold bands, and the two ends of the ball are green. The bands bow with the curve of the ball. The ball is outlined in red stem stitch and the hanging loop is gold stem stitch; the ends of the ball, the bands, the scallops, the drops and the cap are satin stitch.

Size and details

Intermediate. Satin stitch over about a fifth 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 2 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.4 × 1.8 in	3.6 × 4.6 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.2 × 2.7 in	5.6 × 6.9 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	2.9 × 3.5 in	7.4 × 8.9 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.6 × 4.4 in	9.1 × 11.2 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5 × 6.2 in	12.7 × 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.

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

What you need

DMC 986 Very Dark Forest GreenEnds of the ball and lower scallops
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawBands, hanging loop and cap
DMC 304 Medium RedUpper scallops, drops and ball

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 strandsEnds of the ball, bands, upper scallops, lower scallops, drops, cap
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsBall, hanging loop

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.