About

Mary Corbet

writer and founder

 

I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

Contact Mary

Connect with Mary

     

Archives

2024 (127) 2023 (125) 2022 (136) 2021 (130) 2020 (132) 2019 (147) 2018 (146) 2017 (169) 2016 (147) 2015 (246) 2014 (294) 2013 (294) 2012 (305) 2011 (306) 2010 (316) 2009 (367) 2008 (352) 2007 (225) 2006 (139)

Free Hand Embroidery Pattern: Perfect Pillow Top

 

Amazon Books

This hand embroidery pattern available for free download would make a perfect decorative pillow top. I’ve only embroidered two pillows in my life – one was all satin stitch, in a very ornate entwined knotwork design, worked in silk on white linen with a royal blue velvet pillow back, finished with hand-made cording and tassels. And I still think it’s one of the prettiest projects I’ve ever stitched. I made it as a gift. Where it is now, I have no idea! The other pillow top was not quite as successful – in fact, I think it was a dismal failure. Unfortunately, I know where that one is!

So every time I clean up a design that looks like a perfect pillow top, it reminds me of those two pillows. Both of them were pleasurable to stitch, despite their varied outcomes. I’m convinced that a beautiful hand embroidered decorative pillow in the home is the perfect accent. Someday, I’ll make another one.

In the meantime, I’ll share this pattern with you. I think it’s a neat one – and you can probably find other uses for it, too!

Free Hand Embroidery Pattern: Perfect Pillow Top

That’s how I see it as a pillow top – but the pattern itself is actually turned 45 degrees. So it looks like this:

Free Hand Embroidery Pattern: Perfect Pillow Top

Either way works!

I can see the design worked in one color, in multiple colors, in white on white or ivory on white – many possibilities! It might even make a neat quilt square, done in a twilling technique. It might be a little complex for that, but I bet it would work. Reduced in size, on fine fabric with fine threads, it could make a pretty embroidered ornament of some sort. Or a box top! What do you think? How would you interpret this pattern in embroidery?

Here’s the PDF download, which you can print and enlarge:

Free Hand Embroidery Pattern: Perfect Pillow Top (PDF)

If you like it and use it, I hope you enjoy it – and I’d love to see a photo!

You can find plenty more free hand embroidery patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread! And more to come in the future….

 
 

Leave A Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*


(11) Comments

  1. I remember a nice pillowcase you have embroidered with lots of smiley patterns. I guess that can be counted as another successful pillow.

    2
  2. I have the perfect dusty blue silk to use as a background for this design! I’ve just been waiting to find the perfect design for a pillow, and here it is. Thanks Mary.

    3
  3. Hey vinitha!
    Are you from India?.There is a magazine called needle’n’thread which is published in India.It’s a quarterly magazine.
    Mary-I guess she got confused because of the name.I may be wrong!

    4
  4. What a lovely pattern! I can see it in goldwork, with lots of saturated colors (I’m partial to blue), or whitework using coton a broder or floche, or even as a quilt top, using the pattern for the hand quilting stitches.

    Amy, the dusty blue silk sounds lovely, how will you embroider the pattern?

    5
  5. I think this may be the pattern I’ve been looking for. I have a very nice piece of white damask that I’ve been wanting to use as a background and embroider something on it. All in blue, with beads where the dots are on the curved parts.

    6
  6. It is a very pretty pattern! I like the idea of stitching it white on white, but knowing myself(I love colour!)it would probably come out colourfull anyway, heheh. Thanks for the pattern, I would love to make a pillow out of this ^_^

    7
  7. Hi Mary, thank you for another free pattern. I have recently agreed to help someone with failing sight finished her Hardanger supper cloth, so I think lots of things on my “Want to do list” are going to be there for some time. Although I am not going to stop doing my own work – I just won’t be able to do my own work all the time. And yes, the lady concerned is going to pay me for helping finish the cloth.

    8
More Comments