Abstract Face Butterflies Embroidery Design, Line Art Fashion Pattern

Abstract face with butterflies, 3 colors, 9 sizes, stitch count as light as 5,519 at the smallest, this whole design is built on restraint. The face is gestural line art, drawn like somebody did it in one continuous pen stroke with no filled areas at all. Black thread traces a nose bridge, a lip, a jaw angle, hair lines falling to the side. It reads more like an impression of a face than a portrait, theres no attempt to fill it in or make it photorealistic. Around it three butterflies sit at different sizes and heights, the largest upper-left with open wing fills showing vein detail, a smaller one lower-right, the third overlapping the hair lines slightly.

The wings stitch in two colors: warm gold-yellow and soft teal-blue (the original uses a Madeira Classic 40 Liberty thread for that particular teal). Open fill areas between the veining let the base fabric show through, which is part of the effect. My friend stitched the 5-in across the cream silk blend blouse last month and said it looked hand-drawn directly on the fabric, thats exactly what it's going for. Density sits at 287 on average, quite low by design. Any heavier and the sketchy quality fills in and you'd lose the thing that makes it interesting.

Use a water-soluble topping over any textured or stretchy fabric, without it the fine linework sinks and loses definition in the weave. Hoop tight and dont skimp on tension, at this density registration has to be right from the start or it wont look the way it should. Skip heavy stabilisers here, a light tearaway or light cutaway on stable woven fabric is all it needs. Dm me if the gold or teal tones look off for your thread brand and I can suggest the closest matches I know.