Message me if you need a different orientation but honestly the side profile is what sets this apart from every other butterfly design out there. Most butterfly designs show wings spread wide from the front. Here the butterfly is perched, wings folded up and together, viewed from the side. Its the moment of stillness right after landing. The outline is almost entirely running stitch, very sparse at 563 stitches in the smallest size, with just the thorax section worked a bit denser where the body sits.
Four sizes, 1.49 inches wide to 5 inches wide. At 563 stitches its one of the lightest designs Ive released, stitches out so fast youll think the machine skipped something. The 1,283 stitch count at the 5-inch size is still tiny compared to filled designs. Thats deliberate, the whole point is the drawn quality, the way it looks like a pencil sketch lifted into thread. I stitched the 3-inch on cream linen last spring and a few people genuinly thought Id printed it rather than sewn it. One customer messaged me to ask which fabric paint brand I used, which made me laugh. Dont add density, dont try to fill it in.
Slip a soft cutaway beneath the work on linen or cotton before you hoop, and watch your tension closely because with so few stitches any puckering shows straight away. Swap to a lightweight cutaway on stretch fabrics instead of tearaway so the outline doesnt pull out of shape. Grab a 75/11 sharp needle and slow your machine speed down a touch for those long outline runs. Stitch a test scrap first if youre new to running-stitch work, the technique is forgiving but the fabric prep matters a lot. Message me in the shop if the outline pulls or puckers and Ill help you find the right tension for your fabric.
Buyers most often grab it for:
- Botanical-style journal covers and fabric notebooks with the sketch look
- Linen tote bags where the outline sits like a nature illustration
- White shirt chest pockets, small 2-inch placement for everyday wear
- Wedding favour bags with a nature theme, fast to stitch in bulk
- Nursery wall art hoops in soft grey thread on cream muslin
- Cardigan cuffs and collar edges where you want detail not colour
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.
- Botanical-style journal covers and fabric notebooksThe pencil-sketch running-stitch look suits botanical-theme journals better than any filled design would
- Linen tote bags with illustration aestheticSingle outline butterfly on natural linen reads like a nature print without the print, just thread
- Shirt chest pockets for everyday wear563 stitches at 1.49 inches means a chest pocket placement finishes in under 3 minutes
- Wedding favour bags stitched in bulkWedding favour bags can be batch-stitched fast because the low stitch count doesnt slow the machine
- Nursery wall art hoops on muslinCream muslin with soft grey outline thread has a watercolour feel that works in modern nurseries
- Cardigan cuffs and collar edgesOutline-only design doesnt add bulk on fine cardigan knit, the cuff drapes normally after stitching
- Fabric bookmarks and ribbon embellishmentsA 5-inch profile butterfly on a wide satin ribbon makes a unique bookmark or gift wrap tie
Dimensions
4 sizes included. Stitch counts shown for the largest colorway.
| Size (in) | Stitches |
|---|---|
| 2.00 × 1.49 in | 563 |
| 3.00 × 2.24 in | 815 |
| 4.00 × 2.98 in | 1,044 |
| 5.00 × 3.73 in | 1,283 |
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.
