Striped hot air balloon hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 3 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

Striped hot air balloon: preview of the stitched design

A hot-air balloon is seen from the side: nine gores, the long panels from its top to its mouth, narrow from the middle to the edge as they turn away, five of them in satin stitch and four left as bare cloth between. The crown, the skirt and the rim of the basket are satin stitch bands, four back stitch ropes run down to the basket, and the basket is satin stitch.

Size and details

Intermediate. Long satin stitches from a 5 inch hoop up.

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)	1.3 × 1.9 in	3.3 × 4.8 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2 × 2.8 in	5.1 × 7.1 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	2.6 × 3.8 in	6.6 × 9.7 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.3 × 4.7 in	8.4 × 11.9 cm	1/2 in (13 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	4.6 × 6.6 in	11.7 × 16.8 cm	11/16 in (17 mm)

In a 6 or 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 1/2 in (13 mm) or more 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 304 Medium RedGores
DMC 336 Navy BlueCrown and skirt, ropes, and basket rim
DMC 3828 Hazelnut BrownBasket

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 strandsGores, crown and skirt, basket, basket rim
Back stitch 2 strandsRopes

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.