Here’s a simple hand embroidery pattern that I cleaned up from an old French magazine from the turn of last century. I think I cleaned this one up for kids to stitch during summer embroidery classes a few years ago – I remember one of the little kids begging for a fish design! Here’s the pattern, followed by some stitching suggestions…

Of course, with designs like this, line stitches always work great. But you could take it a bit further and work in some Very Long woven picots for the seaweed, buttonhole wheels on the eyes, maybe feather stitch inside the fish instead of straight lines…. there are lots of possibilities!

If you’re a fishy person, I hope you can find some good use for the design!

Feel free to check out the rest of my free hand embroidery patterns, if you’re itching for something to stitch!