Mama Claus Christmas Embroidery Design, Instant Download

MAMA takes up the top two-thirds in big block capitals and each letter has its own fill pattern. The M is mostly a dark forest-green polka-dot fill with a red Santa hat perched on top, rounded tip with fur and a fluffy white fur trim. The two A shapes get a red-and-white treatment, one with a blush-pink dotted fill, the other carrying the reindeer antlers on a green scarf with a little bow. Its busy in the best way because every element is packed in tight rather than floating around trying to fill space.

Below the block letters, Claus runs in a loose connected cursive script in black, sitting on a slight forward slant. A strand of string lights loops across the whole composition, with small lit bulbs in mixed colours catching where the letters meet. Holly branches with red berries tuck in on each side, and 4-point sparkle stars scatter at the corners and gaps. Eleven colours and 1,400 density stitches per square inch, which is genuinely high detail work. At the 5.83 by 7.5 size you're looking at 61k stitches. This ones for a machine with a bit of experience on it, or someone who has run complex multi-colour jobs before.

Five sizes, smallest at 2.73 by 3.5 inches. Use a woven medium-weight cutaway backing. On a sweatshirt the full-size panel fills the front without going edge-to-edge, which is the right scale for this kind of typographic piece. Hoop firmly, use a tear-away topping on fleece or melton so the polka-dot fills sit flat. Skip thin jersey altogether unless you float a stabiliser underneath the hoop. Avoid rushing the machine on the dense letter sections or the fill paths start to pull.

This gets stitched on mum sweatshirts, aprons and tote bags mostly. Last Christmas a customer made a matching set for her mum, grandma and auntie across 3 sizes, each on their own sweatshirt, and sent me a photo of them all wearing em on the morning. Honestly its one of those photos I keep going back to. The cursive Claus at the bottom is what pulls it past a basic letter-fill piece and gives it a finished look even at the smallest size. Ive seen it on dressing gown pockets, canvas shopping bags, and cushion covers going under trees. Email me the thread brand and colour-stop list if a density section is pulling and Ill resend a corrected file.