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Home»Embroidery»Merry and bright free Christmas embroidery design

Merry and bright free Christmas embroidery design

  • December 3, 2025
  • Cristin Morgan

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Embrace all things festive this month with Cristin Morgan's beautiful free Christmas embroidery design and invite warm Christmas cheer into your home

Is there anything better than cosying up with a new embroidery project? We love this beautiful Christmas embroidery hoop designed by Cristin Morgan. It’s bound to look beautiful in your home this festive season.

Alternatively, you could stitch this Christmas embroidery design as a gift for someone you care about. They’re guaranteed to appreciate the care and effort you’ve put into this beautiful embroidery hoop art.

This project is ideal for beginners because there are only a few simple stitches to master. If you’re new to embroidery, you might find it useful to check out some of our expert guides to learn everything you need to know to get started. Check out our embroidery for beginners, embroidery stitches and best embroidery machine guides.

Notes

  • Download the Merry and bright template

You will need:

  • Navy cotton fabric (16x16cm)
  • Stranded cotton (gold, light green, dark green, pink, white)
  • Embroidery hoop (11cm diameter)
  • Embroidery needle
  • Merry and bright Christmas embroidery template (download and print it off using the link above)

Step 1

Print out the template and transfer the design onto dark blue fabric. Make sure you take care to cover the lines with your stitching, as they are permanent. The hoop is used to mount the fabric whilst stitching, to keep it taut, then also used to frame the finished design.

Start by stitching the lettering in Split Stitch using three strands of white. Keep the stitches quite small, so they curve neatly. Work the dot on the ‘i’ as a French Knot using three strands of white.

Merry and bright Christmas embroidery design step 1

Step 2

Work the pink flowers using three individual Lazy Daisy Stitches, each coming from the same central point to form the petals, using three strands of pink.

Merry and bright Christmas embroidery design step 2

Step 3

Work the ferns using three strands of gold. Work Straight Stitches for the leaves and Backstitch for the central stem.

Merry and bright Christmas embroidery design step 3

Step 4

Work the green leaves using three strands of dark green. For each leaf, work three Straight Stitches side by side and at staggered lengths. Work the stems in Backstitch, using three strands of dark green.

Merry and bright Christmas embroidery design step 4

Step 5

Work the stars and straight lines using three strands of light green. Work the stars using Straight Stitches, overlapping each stitch at the centre to form the star shape. Work the straight lines using individual Straight Stitches scattered across the fabric.

Merry and bright Christmas embroidery design step 5

Step 6

Cover each printed dot on the fabric with an individual French Knot worked in the centre. Work the large dots using three strands of pink, with three twists. Work the small dots using three strands of gold, with just one twist.

Merry and bright Christmas embroidery design step 6

Framing in a hoop

Step 1

Press your finished embroidery on the wrong side to avoid flattening the stitches. Trim the fabric into a circle that’s slightly larger than the outer hoop.

Place the inner hoop onto a piece of felt and cut around it if you want to back your hoop neatly. Mount the fabric back into the hoop in the same way as when you were stitching, but making sure the design is central within the inner hoop and the screw is positioned at the centre of the top.

Work running stitch around the edge of the fabric and pull tightly to gather the fabric behind the hoop. Pin the felt over the back of the gathered fabric and stitch into place by hand using either small whipping stitch or blanket stitch all the way around for a neat finish.

Merry and bright Christmas embroidery design

Merry & bright embroidery

We hope you enjoyed making our Christmas embroidery project! Hang it up in your home this festive season.

Christmas embroidery patterns

Feel like a little Santa magic in your Christmas embroidery? How about these adorable mini Santa embroidery designs?

christmas embroidery santa

Cristin Morgan

Cristin Morgan

Author and designer Cristin lives and stitches in beautiful Richmond, Virginia, with her loving husband, two sons and two dogs, Birdie and Pumpkin. A lifelong crafter, she enjoys many mediums in addition to embroidery, but feels most drawn to textiles and fibre art due to their tactile nature. When she’s not stitching, you can find her seeking adventures in the outdoors with her family, at the rink playing roller derby for the River City Rats, cooking vegan food, or watching reruns of The Office. Follow her on Instagram: @cristinmorgan.thread.

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