Black & White Cat Embroidery Design, Instant Download

This lil cat came out of a bunch of requests I got last spring from pet embroiderers who wanted something clean and graphic rather than the painterly photo-realistic styles. Single colour, technically you run it in black thread on white fabric, or white thread on black, and either way the cat reads perfectly. That contrast-swap trick is one of my favourite things about this design, a customer messaged me last month saying she ran the whole design in white on a black sweatshirt and it looked like a screen print. Five sizes, 3-in to 7 inpiece, stitch counts from 5,521 up to 17,218.

Hooped properly on a medium cutaway stabiliser, this one runs really clean. Density is 477, not a heavy fill, so theres no stiffness in the fabric afterwards, which matters alot on jersey or stretch cotton where you dont want a rigid patch on the front. The satin outlines around the face and ears are the trickiest part to get right if you're on a budget machine, so use a 75/11 sharp needle and run it slow on the first pass to let the outline lie flat before the fill goes down.

Directional fill inside the body area gives the cat a slight texture in raking light, ya wont see it in photos but in person it adds a bit of life to what would otherwise be a flat silhouette. Nine sizes might sound like overkill but honestly the jump from 5 inches to 7.5 inches is significant when you're deciding between a chest placement and a full-front statement on a hoodie.

Stitch on a tote bag, a tea towel, a pillow, or the front of a sweatshirt. Works brilliantly on fleece with a layer of water-soluble topping over the pile so the outlines dont sink. Pair with a plain colour background, royal blue, forest green, or burnt orange all make the black-and-white pop nicely. Ping me if you want the design in a different size outside the five included and Ill see what I can do.