February 10, 2024 marked the beginning of the Chinese New Year. This is the Year of the Wood Dragon. Growing up with a Japanese mother, we celebrated New Years on January 1 with ozoni, a soup with a rice dumpling called mochi. The Lunar New Year was acknowleged, but not a big celebration in our house. We did, however, know our Chinese Zodiac signs.

We are lucky to live in an area of the United States that has a significant population of Vietnamese and Chinese families, so the Lunar New Year is a big celebration. In my brother’s neighborhood, the Tet festival is a lively 3 day celebration. My family celebrated here in Southern California with an after dinner trip to Hui Lau Shan, a Hong Kong based desert chain that specializes in mango deliciousness! Yum!

My dragon design is stitched in lucky color red (madder root dyed) embroidery floss. You, of course, can make yours with any color you wish. I prefer embroidery floss because the stitched line it makes can be made thicker or thinner depending on the number of threads used. If you want to keep your threads smooth and untangled, I suggest using a thread conditioner like Sewfine Thread Gloss .

This blog post is going to be short and sweet with minimal instructions. There are only few types of stitches used. And…there will be a cost for the pattern. What? It will cost something? Yes, the price is ONE GOOD DEED. It need not be large, but it should come from the heart. It can be as simple as picking up trash on your morning stroll, or helping someone reach something at the top shelf of the grocery store. Do your best. I know many of you may just ignore this cost, but at least I’ll have put a bug in your ear, and you may think about it. You can download it here: Year of the Dragon Pattern.

Happy Stitching!

Supplies

Background fabric - 12” x 12” medium weight cotton, linen, or cotton/linen blend. I used a piece of an old cotton sheet that I spattered with diluted walnut husk dye. If your fabric is too thin you will need to back it with a stabilizer like Pellon sf101. This is a fusible woven cotton stabilizer.
6-strand embroidery floss - red.
Embroidery hoop 8” - optional
Fine- line Transfer pen like Sublime Stitching Transfer Pen
One piece of printer paper for tracing design
Light box or brightly lit window
Tape for securing design to light box or window
Pressing Iron
Chenille needle, size 24 (or embroidery needle of your choice)
Butternut Plaid Stitch Guide - If you’ve made any of my other designs you may already have this.

Instructions

Center the pattern sheet onto your light box, and then place a small piece of clear tape on the top and bottom of the paper to secure. The pattern is already reversed for use as a transfer.
Center a blank piece of printer paper over the top of the pattern, and then tape to secure.
Use a transfer pen to trace the image onto the printer paper. This will be your transfer paper.
Place fabric background onto ironing surface.
Center transfer paper, image side down onto fabric background. Pin in place at the top only. This will act a hinge to allow the paper to be folded up and away from the fabric.
Fold the paper back, away from the fabric, and then use a dry iron on it’s hottest setting to heat up the background to prepare it for transfer.
Carefully, fold the transfer paper back down and press the iron on the transfer paper for about 15 seconds. Do not slide it over the surface! If you want to move the iron, bring it up and back down on each section. The image should start to show through to the back side. After all sections of the transfer have been pressed, carefully pull up one corner of the paper to check if the transfer was successful. If not, then repeat pressing, and then check again.

Use 1 strand of thread to fly stitch the teeth and scales of the dragon.
Use 1 strand of thread to stem stitch everything, including clouds, with the exception of the small detail stitches on the horns, and jawline.
Use 1 strand of thread to make tiny seed stitches around the jawline. There are a couple on the bridge of the nose, and a series of stitches on the horns. The stitches range from 1/8” long straight stitches to stitches that cover only 1 or 2 threads of cloth.