Floral Skull with Butterfly Embroidery Design, Instant Download

Drew up this design thinking about the relationship between the skull and the butterfly in folk art traditions, where the butterfly represents the soul leaving the body. So placing the monarch right on the forehead felt right, it sits there like its just landed, wings spread, while the peonies grow around and through the face on the left side. Its a quieter take on the theme than you might expect, not loud, just kind of contemplative.

One colour, black, zero stops. No colour changes at all. Wilcom EmbroideryStudio digitised the monarch wings with directional satin at density 419, lighter than most of the other skull pieces in this range, deliberately so. They need to look delicate compared to the heavier skull bone structure below. 46 trims, mostly between the peony petal groups where each petal section runs separately to prevent shadowing between layers.

5 sizes from 4 inches to 8 inches, stitch counts from 11,149 to 21,712. The 4-inch is where this design starts to lose the fine antenna detail, so Id say 5 inches is your practical minimum for full clarity. One customer asked me about the 8-inch on a full-width cotton bandana last spring and I told her go for it, she came back and said the folk-art feel on bandana cloth was exactly what shed been looking for. Hooped flat, medium tearaway, the bandana fabric is stable enough that you dont need cutaway, its one of the easier substrates for this design.

Best fabric really is the cotton bandana or a mid-weight navy or coral linen. The single-colour style needs a flat, woven surface for the directional stitching to read properly. Avoid fleece or terry on this one, the detail in the monarch wing sections will sink into the pile. Add a press cloth after stitching to flatten the satin peonies.