Fierce Tiger Face Embroidery Design, Instant Download

Sketched this tiger out as a pure face shot, no body, no background, just the head filling the hoop. The fur is built up in these overlapping directional satin sections that flow from the centre outward, tangerine at the cheeks and forehead, chocolate brown for the stripe markings, sandy cream around the muzzle area. The eyes are this dark garnet red, which shouldnt work but it does, gives the whole thing a kind of intensity that a normal amber wouldnt. And the whiskers run way past the face edge in thin white radiating lines.

Plotted in Wilcom EmbroideryStudio. The fur direction comes out varied because each section stitches the opposite way to the one next to it, so the final piece actually catches the light differently depending on the angle. Theres 8 colours total and 7 colour changes. The density sits at 699 across most sections, its a bit lower on the muzzle where the satin columns get longer. Use a heavy cutaway stabiliser, dont attempt this on jersey or thin cotton without it. Stitch it slow on the facial fur sections, youll get better colour separation between the orange and brown bands at reduced speed.

4 sizes from 4.50 x 3.84 inches up to 7.50 x 6.39 inches, stitch counts from 19,514 to 33,500. Avoid thin jersey without proper backing, it wont hold the density. Pick a stiff woven fabric like canvas or heavy cotton twill and youll be fine. Add a tearaway on top of your cutaway if youre stitching onto a bag with interfacing already in it. The kraft canvas tote is where I see this used the most, and it looks great there because the texture adds to the roughness of the tiger.

christmas or halloween themes aside, this tiger works year round as a wildlife statement design. A customer wanted it on a sports bag in the school colours with the tiger as a mascot, and the brown-orange palette swapped out clean. Email me if you need help thinking through a colour substitution for something like that.