This fly looks personally offended by something and I love it. The compound eyes take up about half the face, big warm brown goggle shapes with a subtle sheen fill, and the expression underneath is this weary scowl like the poor thing has had a terrible morning. Its hunched forward, six hairy black legs splayed out underneath it, posture like someone who just sat down after a long day. The wings fold back in tan-cream with black vein lines running through them, they look delicate against all that heavy body.
The body itself is teal-green with darker segmented sections across the back and a strong black outline holding everything in line. Short black bristles stick out from the legs and the back edge of the body, digitising all those individual spike rows is honestly the fiddliest part of this design, each one is a tiny satin column. Around the base of the feet theres a soft grey shadow, which grounds the fly and makes it feel like its actually standing on something rather than floating.
I drew this for a kids party planner who organises bug-themed birthday parties, she wanted something with personality rather than a generic beetle clipart. Since then I get orders for it from novelty tee printers and a few entomology merchandise sellers which I did not see coming. One customer told me she stitched it on a white lab coat for her biology classroom as a joke, the kids went wild for it.
Run this on white or pale grey cotton and the teal really comes through. Pop the 7.5-inch on a black tee for maximum drama, the colour fills and outlines sing on dark fabric too. Avoid patterned or textured cloth here because the crosshatch fill detail disappears into busy backgrounds. Use mesh cutaway stabiliser under everything, this design runs up to 68,333 stitches at the biggest size so a firm base is non-negotiable.
Slow your machine speed down for the leg-spike rows and the wing vein columns. Directional stitching on the body segments needs a good firm hoop, any shifting and those parallel fills go wavy. Tearaway wont cut it here, go with cutaway even on woven fabric at the larger sizes. Bug me on chat if the stitch file gives trouble and I'll sort it.
What people are using this design for
A starting point. The design works for plenty more than just this list, this is what folks have stitched it onto most.
- Kids bug-themed birthday party teesStitch the 6-in face on a white tee for a bug-themed kids party and pair with the kids name in block letters underneath.
- Novelty tee printing for humour shopsPop the large size on a black tee for a novelty humour shop and photograph flat on white for listings.
- Biology classroom teacher lab coatEmbroider a small 3.5 mini on a white cotton lab coat pocket for a biology teacher who likes a bit of classroom humour.
- Entomology merchandise and patchesUse the medium on canvas as a patch base for entomology fans and finish the edge with a satin blanket stitch.
- Halloween costume accent embroideryStitch on a dark olive jacket pocket for a halloween party costume and pair with a fake magnifying glass prop.
- Kids science camp backpack panelsPop the 4-inch on a kids science camp drawstring bag panel alongside other insect designs for a full bug collection.
- Novelty tea towels for kitchenware giftingEmbroider on a white cotton tea towel for a novelty kitchen gift set and the grumpy face gets comments every time.
- Comic book fan denim jacket patchesRun the 5-inch on a denim military jacket back yoke for a comic book or punk-adjacent fan who wants something unexpected.
Dimensions
9 sizes included. Stitch counts shown for the largest colorway.
| Size (in) | Stitches |
|---|---|
| 3.50 × 3.14 in | 27,151 |
| 4.00 × 3.59 in | 31,578 |
| 4.50 × 4.03 in | 36,126 |
| 5.00 × 4.49 in | 41,049 |
| 5.50 × 4.93 in | 46,136 |
| 6.00 × 5.38 in | 51,339 |
| 6.50 × 5.83 in | 56,790 |
| 6.99 × 6.28 in | 62,474 |
| 7.50 × 6.73 in | 68,333 |
Files & Formats
Eight machine formats included in one zip. Whichever your machine reads, its in the pack.
Plus a color chart for thread matching. See full format guide.
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About the artist
Reyazul Masud Riham, hand-drawing every design on this site
Every design on Re Embroidery is hand-digitized by one person. Each file gets sketched, color-matched, and stitch-tested on real fabric before it earns a place in the shop. No team. No auto-conversion from images. Just slow, deliberate work, sometimes three or four days per design.
That's the joy I work for.
The hard part is finding my designs re-uploaded and resold elsewhere. So when you buy from Re Embroidery, you're paying one real person for the file you're about to download. That matters.
