Made with Love - Happy Jungle Friends Cot Bumper in Anchor - Downloadable PDF

Made with Love – Happy Jungle Friends Cot Bumper Embroidery Pattern by Anchor

This free downloadable PDF pattern from Anchor Studio guides crafters through creating a charming Happy Jungle Friends embroidered cot bumper — a beautifully decorative and practical addition to any baby's nursery. Designed by the Anchor Studio team and published by MEZ GmbH, this intermediate-level embroidery project combines classic needlework techniques with a playful jungle-themed design to produce a finished cot bumper measuring 180 x 40 cm, with an embroidered panel of 53 x 11.5 cm positioned centrally on the bumper.

What Is Being Made

The finished project is a baby cot bumper — a padded fabric surround designed to line the inside of a baby's cot for both decoration and protection. The bumper features a hand-embroidered panel worked onto an Aida fabric panel (part of a pre-made beige baby cot bumper), bringing a sweet jungle friends motif to life using colourful stranded cotton threads. This makes a wonderful handmade gift or a personal nursery project, lovingly crafted with care — as the name "Made with Love" so perfectly suggests.

Techniques Used

This pattern is rated intermediate in difficulty and uses two core embroidery techniques that work together to create detailed, expressive designs:

• Cross Stitch: The primary technique used to fill in the jungle friends motif. Cross stitch is worked in two stages — first the lower diagonal stitch is worked from left to right across a row, and then the upper diagonal stitch is worked back from right to left, completing each cross. One square on the chart represents one cross stitch worked over one Aida square, making the chart straightforward to follow.
• Backstitch: Used after the cross stitch is complete to add outlines, fine details, and definition to the design. Backstitch is worked from right to left and gives the jungle characters their crisp, illustrated appearance. The pattern advises always completing all cross stitch first before adding backstitch on top.

Positioning is an important part of the process — the embroidery panel is centred carefully on the Aida section of the cot bumper before stitching begins, ensuring the finished design sits symmetrically within the bumper's decorative panel.

Stitches Used

• Cross stitch — worked over individual Aida squares following the colour chart
• Backstitch — worked after cross stitch to outline and detail the design

Materials and Thread

The pattern calls for Anchor Stranded Cotton 8m skeins, worked with 2 strands throughout. The following Anchor thread colours are required, with one skein of each:

• #264, #265, #301, #302, #326, #373, #374, #1003, #1038, #1050, #9159

This palette of eleven colours provides the full range of tones needed to bring the jungle friends to life, from lush greens and warm earthy shades to soft accent colours. Anchor Stranded Cotton is produced in accordance with Oeko-tex standards, with tested pH values and colours adhering to Global fastness standards — an important consideration for items intended for use in a baby's environment.

Notions and Base Materials

• 1 baby cot bumper in beige — pre-made, featuring an Aida fabric panel ready for embroidery
• 1 Tapestry needle No. 24 — the recommended needle size for working with stranded cotton on Aida fabric

Care and Washing

Because this is an item intended for a baby's cot, proper care is essential. The pattern recommends washing embroidered items at the hottest temperature permitted by the fabric's care instructions, using a large volume of water. This is particularly important with darker thread colours, where excess dye may remain on the thread after stitching. The use of decolorating sheets is suggested as an additional precaution to prevent any colour transfer.

Pattern Format

This is a