Colorful Floral Sugar Skull Embroidery Design, Day of Dead Drip Pattern

Sketched this colorful sugar skull and the flower crown does most of the heavy lifting for me. Front facing cream skull, full halo of bright flowers wrapping the top of the head. Yellow sunflowers, purple anemones, big blue cosmos, red carnations, orange daisies, all packed in tight with green leaves filling the gaps between em. Underneath the chin a drippy purple liquid effect oozes down with little teardrops trailing off the bottom.

The eye sockets get a properly bold treatment, theyre done in solid purple satin instead of black so the whole face stays lighter and more decorative rather than scary. Tattoo style flower paint runs across the cheekbones, the artist used the same colour palette as the crown which ties the face into the rest of the composition really well.

I made this for a customer in austin who runs a day of the dead pop up shop every october. She bought the file last halloween and stitched it on black and navy tees, sold em out two weeks in. The drip detail is what made it go, customers walked up holding their phones with the design on screen asking if it was real embroidery.

5 sizes from 3.07 inches wide up to 6.59 inches wide, taller than its wide because of the drip running down. Smallest works for chest pocket pieces, biggest centred on a tote or sweatshirt panel. Skip anything under 3.5 inches because the flower petal detail collapses.

13 thread colours so its not a quick batch. Stitch on cream cotton, sage canvas, navy denim, black fleece. Cutaway stabiliser, hooped tight. Slow the machine on the petal sections so the satin lays clean and the colour changes dont drag the fabric.