Toy xylophone with crossed mallets hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 6 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

Toy xylophone with crossed mallets: preview of the stitched design

A toy xylophone lies flat and is seen from above, the same on both sides. Five bars cross two navy rails, the shortest at the top and the longest at the foot: blue, green, gold, orange and red in that order from the top. A navy peg pins each end of every bar to the rail under it, and the rails show between the bars and a little way past the first and the last. Above the shortest bar two mallets lie crossed, with gold sticks and round red heads at the upper ends. The rails, the bars and the sticks and heads of the mallets are satin stitch, and the pegs of the bars are French knots.

Size and details

Intermediate. Long satin stitches from a 6 inch hoop up.

6 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 × 1.5 in	3.3 × 3.8 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	1.9 × 2.2 in	4.8 × 5.6 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	2.5 × 3 in	6.4 × 7.6 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.2 × 3.7 in	8.1 × 9.4 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	4.4 × 5.2 in	11.2 × 13.2 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.
In a 3 or 4 inch hoop the French knots are drawn smaller than about 2 mm (a little over 1/16 in). Use one strand of floss for them there, or choose a larger hoop.

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

What you need

DMC 336 Navy BlueRails and pegs of the bars
DMC 3755 Baby BlueBlue bar
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenGreen bar
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawGold bar and sticks of the mallets
DMC 922 Light CopperOrange bar
DMC 304 Medium RedRed bar and heads of the mallets

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 strandsRails, bars, sticks of the mallets, heads of the mallets
French knot 2 strands, two wrapsPegs of the bars

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.