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Mary Corbet

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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

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Sajou Embroidery Album – Beautiful Monograms!

 

Amazon Books

A kind reader sent me a quick e-mail yesterday, with a link to a new addition to Antique Pattern Library – Sajou Album No. 612 – which is a gorgeous collection of monograms for hand embroidery. The monograms are presented in three sizes, and along with them are several very pretty border designs.

Sajou Embroidery Pattern No. 612

This is a beautifully clean copy of this particular Sajou album, so you’ll definitely want to download it for your files! Admittedly, one of the most appealing things to me about the Sajou albums of old is their covers. I love them! I’ve been collecting old Sajou albums for years, but I’m lucky if I ever find any of the old ones with decent covers, so I’m always thrilled to see a really clean cover on an uploaded digital version.

Sajou Embroidery Pattern No. 612

But of course, what’s a clean cover good for, if the content isn’t equally as pleasing? The monogram design in this album definitely lives up to the cover, that’s certain! it’s a gorgeous alphabet – very fancy! It would look lovely in whitework!

Sajou Embroidery Pattern No. 612

In this album, you’ll find three sizes of the monogram available. On the large ones, you can really see the details.

Sajou Embroidery Pattern No. 612

While the small designs tend to look a little crowded here, they print better from the available PDFs.

I did run into a few little problems trying to download the PDFs, but that could just be an internet blurp on my end (winter storm and all).

If you love monograms, you love this one, and …. best yet! …. it’s free. So jump on over to Sajou No. 612 on Antique Pattern Library and add it to your collection!

Thanks, Cindy!

 
 

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(19) Comments

    1. Hi, All – pretty, aren’t they? Usually, with monograms, you can turn the M upside down for the W, and often the J does double service as the I, though sometimes, that requires adjusting the pattern a bit. Hope that helps! MC

  1. Hi Mary. I love these monograms. But am I dense or is the “I” missing in all of these alphabets? Does the “I” and “J” do double duty? I’ve never done a monogram before but this sure does inspire me to try it!
    Brenda, Wilmington, Ohio

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  2. I went to the website tout suite! The monograms are so beautiful.
    What a shame they are based on a 24-letter alphabet.
    I’m disappointed to see “W” left out. I and Wanda and Wilhelmina and Winifred (and Wicked Witch of the West) are out in the cold on this one. Also, my grandmother Irene (of “Good-Night” fame), Isolde, Ilona, Ilsa, Ivanna, and Isabel.
    Ah, well, if I ever really use this design, I can always meld 2 “V”s together. (or turn an “M” upside down?) And I suppose the “I” ladies can use the top of the “J” and fuse it with the bottom of the “T”.
    Fact remains, they are gorgeous, and appeal to my love of all things pretty!
    Thanks, Mary.

    3
  3. Oh Mary, these monograms are so beautiful. Thank you very much. I have bookmarked the page as the pdf doesn’t seem to work
    Thank you again and have a lovely Christmas

    Karen in Kettering UK

    5
  4. Wow, those are so elaborate and beautiful! It’s a little too rich for my blood, but maybe one of your readers will do it! If so, I hope they post it. The designs are very pretty to look at – I wonder if they translate well as embroidery.

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  5. Thanks for this link Mary. I saw this yesterday and was so enchanted! However, I have never tried whitework and wouldn’t even know how to apply it to these designs. Any chance you would be willing to provide a tutorial on how to you would work one of these monograms in whitework?

    For those having difficulty downloading, there was a glitch and it should be resolved soon.
    Tania

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  6. If the red SaveAsPdf button does not work, please retry a few times. The service provider who is behind the red button can’t handle all pages at all times, and sometimes this results in a temporary error, especially when it’s busy.
    In time there will be a proper downloadable PDF, but we thought publishing at least the images instead of waiting would give you the chance to look at them.
    Saving the images separately is also an option.

    And about the nice clean copy, I’m tempted to post a picture of the original booklet. It did take some work to get it to this point.

    We have another whitework alphabet as work-in-progress-nearly-finished, though nowhere near as elaborate as this one, from Maison Alexandre. And also we have the Alphabet and Monograms from the art school in Vienna with hundreds of cross stitch monograms, and an Alphabet and monograms album from the Echo de la Broderie.
    Which brings me to the question: Would you ladies rather have the complete alphabet, even though I have to produce the missing letters myself, or would you prefer the original booklet images as they appear? Our group members can reply via the group.
    @Laura, I have seen similar monograms executed as outline stitch only.

    Thank you, Mary, for reposting this so fast – our work was not for nothing.
    Best wishes,
    Sytske

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    1. Thank you so much for the pointers, Sytske! Antique Pattern Library is such a wonderful resource – thank you so much for the hard work that goes into it!

      I don’t mind the alphabets with the missing letters, personally, because the letters that are missing can usually be pieced together or taken from other letters in the alphabet. For example, I find that M upside down makes a good W with many of the alphabets, and the letter “I” can usually be taken from the straight bars on letters like the H, or can be interchanged with J (although perhaps the J doesn’t work so well in this particular alphabet – but it would be easy enough to take one of the vertical bars from the H).

      Maison Alexandre is a wonderful monogram source, too. Do you collect the pamphlets yourself, or is this a group work? I have a whole bunch (stacks and stacks) of old embroidery pamphlets (Sajou, Maison Alexandre, and the various large format French magazines from the 1800’s – early 1900’s), and one day I want to scan them all, but I’ve never had time to do that yet! It’s on my List!

      Thank you again for the wonderful work you do at APL. It’s a marvelous resource, and much appreciated!

      ~Mary

  7. all i can say Mary is, WOW!!!! i want the a, the c, the t, the k, the s and the j….lol….that covers all the females in my family…now to find the time. thanks again for providing us with all this yummy stuff…

    sharyn

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  8. How cool! I’ve never explored this library before! In the third document of Dillmont, Th. de, ed.
    D.M.C. Art Chrétien en Égypte, I found DMC color charts! They look much the same as I’ve used my whole life!

    -julia

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  9. Hi Mary:

    I love these monograms, as stated above! i was wondering if you have any type of guide about choosing stitches and colors to go in different places. I never can figure out what kind of stitches to use where. i think i’ve read just about everything here at Needlenthread but i’ve probably missed something somewhere as there is so much information here. if you can help i’d appreciate it.

    sharyn

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  10. Mary,what video on your web page do you recommend I watch to do monograms? I’m a quilter and plan to Applique a heart of fabric flowers with embroidered DAR letters in the middle of the heart. I’ve not done embroidered letters before and need your advice. Thank you so much. Jan in VA

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    1. It really depends on the letter, Jan. If you’re just planning on outlining the letter, then check out the stem stitch. (Today’s article is about stem stitch, too). If you’re planning on filling it completely, then I’d say satin stitch or long & short stitch, or stem stitch as filling, or even split stitch as filling. Again, depends on the letter design! But hopefully that will give you somewhere to start!

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