Christmas Rainbow with Lights Embroidery Design, Instant Download

Worked up this one as a kind of christmas meets colour-therapy piece. Its a rainbow arc, the full spectrum, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, but each band of colour has a string of matching christmas light bulbs hanging off the bottom edge. Cream wire satin line, eight teardrop bulbs stitched in 8 distinct thread colours, each one sitting on its own little thread post. The arc curves wide and clean, the centre stays open. From a distance it reads like a glowing holiday rainbow, its the kind of design that gets comments from people walking past the hoop.

the digitising software gave me precise control over the 8 colour stops and a density of 708, on the medium end, which is why the rainbow bands feel light and airy rather than stiff. Four sizes: 3.61 inches wide at the smallest up to 6.01 inches, 4.48 to 7.49 inches tall. Stitch range is 18,734 to 31,853. The largest needs a good tearaway or medium cutaway, the smallest runs on a standard tearaway with no issues, it stitches up fast.

A customer wanted to send me a message about a white tee order they'd done for a kids christmas party, the 5-inch version looked brilliant on cotton jersey, the bulbs were clear and the rainbow colours read true. White and pale grey fabric gives the best colour saturation, on a natural cream or ivory the whole design shifts warmer and the blue and purple bulbs tend to bleed into the background a lil. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, it gives a more vintage-washed look, just different.

Stitch it on a kids christmas sweatshirt for something bright and non-traditional. Pop it on a cushion cover if you want some colour in your christmas decor. Run the smallest size on a gift tag or a muslin bag, it fits a 4x4 hoop nicely. Add it to a plain white apron for a christmas baking day, the arc sits well above the pocket. Best on white or pale solid fabrics, the rainbow depends on clean contrast to read at full impact.