Two rubber ducks with bubbles hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 4 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Two rubber ducks with bubbles: preview of the stitched design

Two rubber ducks float face to face on the water, one the mirror image of the other. Each duck is an outline in gold with a round head, a full breast and a turned-up tail, and has a solid gold wing on its side, an orange upper bill and lower bill, and a navy eye. Five blue bubbles, each an open ring, rise over the space between the ducks, the largest lowest and the two smallest at the top. The water is two wavy blue lines at the foot, the lower one shorter. The ducks, the water and the bubbles are stem stitch, the wings and the bills are satin stitch, and the eyes are French knots.

Size and details

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

4 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)	1.7 × 1.3 in	4.3 × 3.3 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.5 × 2 in	6.4 × 5.1 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.4 × 2.7 in	8.6 × 6.9 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.2 × 3.4 in	10.7 × 8.6 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.9 × 4.7 in	15 × 11.9 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)

In a 3 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 3852 Very Dark StrawDucks and wings
DMC 922 Light CopperUpper bills and lower bills
DMC 336 Navy BlueEyes
DMC 3755 Baby BlueWater and bubbles

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 strandsDucks, water, bubbles
Satin stitch 2 strandsWings, upper bills, lower bills
French knot 2 strands, two wrapsEyes

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.