Star-eyed jack-o'-lantern in laurel hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 5 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Star-eyed jack-o'-lantern in laurel: preview of the stitched design

A jack-o'-lantern with stars for eyes sits in a half wreath of two leafy branches. The pumpkin is only outlined, its lobes drawn in orange stem stitch, with a brown satin stitch stalk on top. The face is gold satin stitch on the broad middle lobe: two five-pointed star eyes, a three-cornered nose and a crescent smile. Below the pumpkin a third gold star, the star at the foot, is satin stitch too. From it the branches curve up, one on each side, in dark green stem stitch. Each carries six pairs of branch leaves and one more at its tip, all light green fishbone stitch.

Size and details

Easy. In a hoop of 6 inches or less: stem stitch and fishbone stitch, with some short satin stitches; in a larger hoop the widest satin stitches are long.

5 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)	1.8 × 1.6 in	4.6 × 4.1 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.8 × 2.4 in	7.1 × 6.1 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.7 × 3.2 in	9.4 × 8.1 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.6 × 4 in	11.7 × 10.2 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	6.4 × 5.6 in	16.3 × 14.2 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 922 Light CopperPumpkin
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawStar eyes, nose, smile and star at the foot
DMC 986 Very Dark Forest GreenBranches
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenBranch leaves
DMC 3781 Dark Mocha BrownStalk

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 strandsPumpkin, branches
Satin stitch 2 strandsStar eyes, nose, smile, star at the foot, stalk
Fishbone stitch 2 strandsBranch leaves

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.