Stars and stripes heart hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 3 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

Stars and stripes heart: preview of the stitched design

A heart is filled with stars and stripes, laid out as they are on the flag. Thirteen level stripes cross it, red and white by turns, with a red stripe at the top of the right lobe and a red stripe at the point. A navy field fills the upper left lobe and cuts short the top seven stripes; the six stripes below it run the full width of the heart. Five white stars sit on the field, two above, one in the middle and two below. Each stripe is one band of satin stitch, the stars are satin stitch, and the field is long and short stitch.

Size and details

Intermediate. Uses long and short stitch and satin stitch over about a quarter of the cloth in a 6 inch hoop.

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)	1.7 × 1.5 in	4.3 × 3.8 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.6 × 2.3 in	6.6 × 5.8 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.4 × 3.1 in	8.6 × 7.9 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.3 × 3.9 in	10.9 × 9.9 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	6 × 5.4 in	15.2 × 13.7 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 304 Medium RedRed stripes
DMC B5200 Snow WhiteWhite stripes and stars
DMC 336 Navy BlueNavy field

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 strandsRed stripes, white stripes, stars
Long and short stitch 1 or 2 strandsNavy field

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.