Bow & Ribbon Heart Embroidery Design, Instant Download

Spent a fair bit of time getting the bow count right because the brief was to pack as many different white outline bow shapes into a heart silhouette as possible without it looking like a mess. Theres maybe fifteen or sixteen individual bow elements in there, and theyre all drawn differently. Some are simple loopy bows like youd tie on a gift box. Some are big theatrical ribbon bows with long trailing tails. A couple are small gathered bows, and ones almost like a hair scrunchie knot. Between em theres maybe a dozen small solid-filled hearts scattered into the gaps so its not just bow-on-bow the whole way through.

All the bows are outline only, fine satin column linework with no fill, so the overall design stays light despite how much is in it. The solid hearts are what provides contrast without adding much stitch bulk. Density is 163 per square inch, very light overall, all that detail is happening in the linework rather than in fill coverage. Single colour throughout so youre matching it to anything youve got in your thread box.

Five sizes from 3.04 by 3.5 inches up to 6.52 by 7.5 inches. Stitch counts stay modest, 4,878 on the smallest up to about 8,000 on the largest, which seems low for how much is in there but its all outline work so its not dragging on the count. Itll run faster than it looks like it should.

Last february a customer who makes personalised gift wrapping accessories stitched it in silver metallic on white fabric pouches and said its the most photographed piece she sells at markets, which Ill take. Try it in black on white for a clean punch. Try it in dusty rose on ivory linen for a vintage feel, or pale gold on cream for wedding pieces. For metallic thread keep tension slightly looser than normal and slow the machine right down, fine outline columns on metallic are the first thing to break and theyre a pain to fix mid-hoop.

Use light tearaway on wovens, light cutaway on knits. Hoop firmly. Keep speed moderate because the bow shapes have lots of direction changes and rushing causes corner puckering. Worth a test sew first if youre going onto silk or organza.