The simple beauty and fine detail of botanical drawings have long been a favorite in home décor, but their history goes farther back than you might imagine. Prior to the invention of photography, botanical illustration was the only way of visually recording the world’s many species of plant life. Some books featuring this delicate art form date back to the work of Greek botanists from between 50 and 70 CE.

Our machine embroidery set is not meant for scientific analysis but rather to add a graceful floral touch to pillow covers, linens, garments, and more. There are six different designs within the collection, each in two size formats. Use one or save them all as a coordinated set. 

The samples you see here were stitched in seven shades of 50wt cotton thread, echoing the original look of botanical drawings, which traditionally employed subtle yet still rich tones to best mimic the colors inherent in each plant. 

Just because they’re subtle doesn’t mean they’re simple. Each design has been expertly digitized to emulate the look of hand embroidery with beautifully textured features, such as a stem stitch, French knots, and ribbed leaves.

Thanks to our sponsorship from Janome America, this design set is offered below as a free download. It’s also thanks to Janome that the stitch outs look so incredibly gorgeous and flawless. S4H is a Janome Exclusive Studio for a reason… well, actually for several reasons: precision, flexibility, power, reliability, and ease-of-use. There are even more reasons, but these five come together to equal true quality, and they are what you need to look for in any home embroidery machine you’re planning to buy. 

When stitching designs with this type of density and detail, your fabric base is an important component. We were excited to try Cross Stitch Cloth from Fat Quarter Shop. Although designed for hand work, the attributes of the cloth seemed like they would be perfect in a machine embroidery environment. We were right! This cloth has no slubs, and the weave is very even and uniform, resulting in perfect stitch outs. It is also sized (as in stiffened) differently, so it stays on grain throughout the embroidery. There was no play to the fabric like you might find in standard linen yardage. 

Our thanks to Fat Quarter Shop for providing the cloth. We used a high-count weave to provide the best base. Our choice was 28 Count Cross Stitch Cloth Linen from Wichelt Imports in White Chocolate. The cloth is pre-packaged as an 18” x 27” cut, which was enough for us to stitch all the samples in one size. It is a bit more expensive than regular linen yardage, but to us – the extra expense is worth it as there was zero time lost “futzing” with an uncooperative fabric! If you’re looking for an excellent substrate for your “art quality” machine embroidery, we encourage you to give Cross Stitch Cloth from Fat Quarter Shop a try; they offer a wide selection of weights and colors. 

Of course, final thread and fabric selections are always up to you. These designs could be stitched with traditional 40wt embroidery thread and your choice of material. However, the designs have a striking elegance when executed in natural fibers. You will also need bobbin thread and stabilizer as recommended by your machine.

All six designs are ready to stitch out in six major embroidery file formats: ART, EXP, JEF, PES, VIP, and VP3. The six-piece design set is offered in two sizes to accommodate the most common embroidery hoop sizes: 5” x 7” and 4” x 4”.  In addition, you’ll find PDF templates to perfectly position each design and full color charts. The color charts show detailed sizing as well as stitch count.

Of course we realize not everyone has access to an embroidery machine, but we hope this beautiful design collection will inspire you to find out more about how interesting and affordable it can be to add machine embroidery to your sewing space. We recommend taking a look at the full selection of Janome machines at your local Janome dealer, from the top-of-the-line, sewing + embroidery Janome Continental M17 to one of our studio favorites: the Skyline S9 to the embroidery-only Memory Craft 550E.

S4H Seamstress Team Member, Michele Mishler is the digitizing master behind these designs. It’s a collaborative effort to refine the drawings and select initial stitch patterns and thread colors. But it is definitely Michele’s expertise and creativity that give the designs the hand look we were striving for and the professional finish embroidery enthusiasts demand.

Our thanks again to Janome America for sponsoring these designs and providing the machines to make the stitch outs look perfect every time.

Thanks as well go out to Portland, Oregon floral studio Solabee Flowers & Botanicals. Their exceptional shop was the backdrop for many of our photographs, and our stitch outs felt right at home next to their real life cousins.

Some Hints and Tips 

Lint Control

1. If you choose cotton thread, it will create lint. For the best stitch quality, you want to make sure the lint does not build up in the bobbin area. Lint control is easy to do and takes just a minute; it’s definitely worth the effort!
   
2. You’ll need a paint brush or small cosmetic brush. First, remove the bobbin, then remove the plate and the bobbin case.
   
3. Hold the bobbin case in your hand and use the brush to remove dust and lint from all the surfaces. Next, use the brush to remove the lint from the machine, making sure there is no build up in the bobbin race or the feed dogs. Don’t forget to check the foot. It’s surprising how much lint can hide in the needle area. Canned air is helpful if you have it on hand, but only use it to blow away – never into the machine.
   
4. Finally, re-assemble the machine. The process is simple for lint control, but it does not replace routine machine cleaning and maintenance.
   

Stabilizer

1. For our embroidery samples, we used a tear away/wash away stabilizer: Floriani Stitch N Wash. We found two layers worked best with our choice of Cross Stitch Cloth. Notice how we hooped only the stabilizer.
   
2. Linen fabric can develop “hoop burn” when hooped with the stabilizer, so we like to “float” the fabric over the hoop once the hoop is attached to the machine.
3. What is “hoop burn”? It describes the imprint of the hoop on delicate or napped fabrics. On a substrate like the one we used, the pressure of hooping actually causes abrasion to the linen fibers. 
4. Okay… so what is “float”? To “float” is to place the panel of embroidery fabric over the hoop, on top of the layers of stabilizer. You are eliminating “hoop burn,” and this process is also helpful when you want your design to be perfectly centered on your fabric.
   
5. Mark the center position for the design, then place the fabric on the hoop with the center mark positioned directly under the needle.
   
6. Use a baste function to secure the fabric in place.
   
7. Set up your machine for embroidery and off you go.
   

Speed

Our last hint for perfect results is to be the turtle not the hare. When you’re working with a natural fiber thread, like the Madeira Cotona 50wt we used for this embroidery collection, we recommend stitching the designs at a slower speed. We used 600 stitches per minute.

Thread Chart

Click the button below to download the full color PDF thread chart showing sizing, stitch count, and thread color changes for each of the SIX designs in both the LARGE size and the SMALL size. The thread shown in the chart is what we used: Madeira Cotona 50wt.

IMPORTANT: This download consists of SEVEN 8½” x 11″ sheets that have been bundled together into ONE PDF to make the download easier. 

Templates

Click the buttons below to download full-color placement templates for each design in each size. 

IMPORTANT: The LARGE download consists of SIX 8½” x 11″ sheets. The SMALL download consists of THREE 8½” x 11″ sheets. The pages of both downloads have been bundled together to make the download easier.

Download Instructions (for .zip files)

All elements are provided in your choice of SIX file formats and in two sizes: ART, EXP, JEF, PES, VIP and VP3.

Each file is provided as a .zip file to download. Choose your format and download as you normally would any .zip file. If you have trouble, try the steps below.

First, click on the Blue Icon from the list below that is the appropriate file format for your embroidery machine. This is the .zip file you want to download.

A) For Windows users: Select “Save As” to save the .zip folder where you’d like it on your computer. Navigate to that folder. To unzip the file, you will have to right-click on the folder and select “extract.”

B) For Mac users: The .zip file should automatically download to your “downloads” folder or a location you have previously defined. If not, then right-click (or control-click) on the link and select “Download Linked File”. Save the .zip file to your computer. To unzip the file, double-click the file. Your files will be unzipped into the same folder as the original .zip file.

NOTE: Our thanks to Sew4Home Seamstress Team Member, Michele Mishler for her digitizing expertise to bring these designs to life! As always, these designs are copyrighted, and may be used for personal use and gifts only.