Woven paper heart hand embroidery pattern

Intermediate · 2 colors · 2 kinds of stitch

Woven paper heart: preview of the stitched design

This is a woven paper heart of the kind hung on a Danish Christmas tree: two looped pieces, one red and one white, each cut into five strips and woven through one another so that the square where they meet is a checkerboard. Every strip is satin stitch laid across the strip, in the color of its piece, and the whole heart is outlined in stem stitch.

Size and details

Intermediate. Satin stitch over about a third of the cloth in a 6 inch hoop; from a 5 inch hoop up some of the satin stitches are long.

2 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)	1.5 × 1.4 in	3.8 × 3.6 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.3 × 2.1 in	5.8 × 5.3 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.1 × 2.8 in	7.9 × 7.1 cm	3/8 in (10 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.8 × 3.5 in	9.7 × 8.9 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.4 × 4.9 in	13.7 × 12.4 cm	5/8 in (16 mm)

In an 8 inch hoop the widest satin stitch shape is 5/8 in (16 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.

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 RedStrips of the first piece and edge of the heart
DMC B5200 Snow WhiteStrips of the second piece

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 strandsStrips of the first piece, strips of the second piece
Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsEdge of the heart

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.