Golden Retriever Dog Embroidery Design, Pencil Sketch Trotting Pup

Heres the golden retriever and its got that vintage engraved sketch look I really love. The dog is mid-trot with one front paw lifted, tongue lolling out, tail curled up over the back like its just heard the back door open. Full side body pose with the head turned a touch toward the viewer so you get those soft eyes and the open friendly mouth.

The whole thing runs in 3 thread colours, mostly black ink line with a warm grey for the shadow under the belly and a cream tone catching highlights on the chest and ear feathering. Fur direction is rendered with fine cross hatching, like a pencil drawing transferred to thread, ya know that vintage natural history book plate look. Stitching follows the actual fur grain so the tail and shoulder feathering reads soft.

I made this with pet portrait shops and dog mum gift makers in mind. Last month customer in colorado ordered the 7 inch version on a heavy cotton tote and sent me snapshots of em on the rack at a local farmers market, sold three on the spot. I been digitising more retriever and lab variations because customers keep asking for breed specific gift sets. Send me message if you want a custom pose option.

Stitch on light cotton, oatmeal linen, cream canvas or pale chambray, since the fine line work needs a clean fabric base to hold the cross hatching. Skip dark navy or black, the engraved lines vanish into the dark weave aswell as ruining the vintage book plate feel. Pale denim works ok if youre customising for a casual jeans pocket patch.

Density at 77k on the 7 inch piece is heavy, so back the fabric with a firm cutaway stabiliser, hoop tight, and drop the stitch speed right down across the hatched fur sections. The fine lines pile up if you push speed and you lose the vintage texture. Use polyester thread, the black holds darker through washes than rayon. Hit me up in chat if a thread split happens mid line, simpler to debug from a photo than guess.