Dog house with a heart hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 5 colors · 4 kinds of stitch

Dog house with a heart: preview of the stitched design

A dog house is seen from the front with a daisy at each side. The red roof comes to a point over a red heart, and brown scallops hang under each slope. The brown walls hold a brown arched doorway, and boards run across the front and stop at the doorway. Each daisy has white petals round a gold middle on a green stalk with two leaves, and green ground runs under the house and both daisies. The walls, the scallops and the stalks are stem stitch and the boards are back stitch. The roof, the heart, the doorway, the petals, the middles and the ground are satin stitch, and the leaves are fishbone stitch.

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.

5 colors of floss and 4 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.6 × 1.6 in	4.1 × 4.1 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.4 × 2.4 in	6.1 × 6.1 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.3 × 3.1 in	8.4 × 7.9 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.1 × 3.9 in	10.4 × 9.9 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.7 × 5.5 in	14.5 × 14 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 3781 Dark Mocha BrownWalls, boards, doorway and scallops under the roof
DMC 304 Medium RedRoof and heart
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenStalks, leaves and ground
DMC B5200 Snow WhitePetals of the daisies
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawMiddle of the daisies

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 strandsWalls, scallops under the roof, stalks
Back stitch 2 strandsBoards
Satin stitch 2 strandsDoorway, roof, heart, petals of the daisies, middle of the daisies, ground
Fishbone stitch 2 strandsLeaves

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.