embroidering on gingham

Gingham can be a great fabric to embroider on, and not just for working chicken scratch. It's already got a perfectly square grid so any patterns designed for cross stitch will work equally well on it. Use the corners of each small square (or skip over a few if the squares are very small) for your needle entry and exit holes.



I found these two aprons recently at an antique mall—one pink gingham, the other yellow. Both have a row of brown and red chickens along the bottom. I'm including the pattern here — it's been a while since we've had a freebie! Enjoy!


Click the pattern image for a larger version.

cross stitch trims

Today's patterns are courtesy of Sandro Ilg who lives in Berne, Switzerland. Sandro is a recovering English literature major who decided that wasn't the career for him and now plans to study fashion design instead. He sews and loves to shop for thrift store goodies—clothing, fabric, trims, and buttons. Especially buttons, which he admits he has an addiction to (me, too). Like we couldn't tell from the name of his blog, Mr. Buttons :)

Sandro found these vintage trims while thrifting and asked if I could turn them into charted patterns to share with my Stitch School readers. Of course!



The original trims are embroidered on white linen that's been hemmed top and bottom. I'd probably embroider them directly on a finished item rather than on something that needs to be attached. But, that will depend on your project. The flowers would be cute for a little girl's dress; the cherries for an apron, tea towel, or how about a row along the bottom of curtains in a cherry-themed kitchen?


(Click through for a larger version)

The only change I made is to add a few yellow crosses in the center of the flower—it seemed to need something there but you can leave it out if you like. Done in a medium purple-blue colored floss, they look very much like a flower we call periwinkle or vinca. Use whatever colors you like. Try brown centers with a yellow flower (like black-eyed Susans).


(Click through for a larger version)

Thanks Sandro for sharing your treasures. If anyone else has a vintage hand-embroidered item they'd like to share, let me know. I'd be happy to convert it for you. And I'm always happy to post photos of your finished embroidery projects as inspiration for others. Let's spread the embroidery love!

eat your veggies

Or, maybe I should say, embroider them :)

If you're also a reader of my Primrose Design blog you may have seen that I'm working on quilted patchwork pot holders with food themes. I've run out of vintage linens to cut up so I'm embroidering some of the motifs myself. Today I showed some examples of peas and carrots that I found originally on a vintage apron; there was a yellow squash, too. And I decided to offer the patterns for free here at Stitch School in case you'd like to try them for yourself.

Each of the designs would be super cute on aprons as they appeared originally or perhaps on tea towels or framed pictures on your kitchen wall. All are super easy and shouldn't take more than an hour. No need to trace these onto to your fabric—just count the stitches for your cross stitch and do them first, then go back and freehand draw the stem/outline stitched parts. I used an even-weave linen/cotton blend (from an old tea towel) but you could use Aida if you like.

Click each photo for a larger version on my Flickr page.

vintage monogram designs

These pretty monograms are from a vintage 1954 pattern book of crochet edgings and were originally meant to be filet crochet patterns for trimming sheets. Because filet crochet designs are drawn on a grid they work equally well for cross stitch. Click here for a free pattern with the entire alphabet that you can print out next time you need to add a few letters to a project.



If you'd like to see some examples of vintage monograms for inspiration, you'll find a post all about them here.
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free Valentine's pattern

I'm offering a free embroidery pattern to say Happy Valentine's Day and as a thank you for your support of Stitch School. I get comments nearly every day, especially on the French knot and blanket stitch posts, and I'm so happy that people are still finding those old posts helpful in their pursuit of embroidery.



Isn't he cute? The pattern is just one design of twelve in my Year of Cats pattern. You'll find a copy of the February kitty here.



This is what what the design looks like embroidered on a towel with cute heart-themed fabric and pink rick rack trim. I love to use ginger colors for cats but gray, beige, or black work equally well. You can use whatever color you like for his striped pants—I picked up the green from the leaves in the fabric to tie everything together.