I’m sharing an old but very pretty Lily of the Valley pattern for embroidery.

It’s the May birth flower. In the Victorian language of flowers, lily of the valley meant “return of happiness.”  It also symbolizes purity and sweetness.

Instructions suggest using silk floss. And to embroider it on a baby shirt or blanket, but it would also be pretty on a table topper or blouse.

Silk Art

When this lily of the valley pattern was printed in the Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine, silk flosses had a beautiful high sheen that enhanced any project. You can still find some antique silk floss to purchase on the internet.

Much of the embroidery threads today are silk rayon and not 100% silk. This makes them more affordable while still giving a pretty sheen to your embroidery work compared to cotton floss.

From the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s there was an era of embroidery called “Silk Art” or “Society Silk”. This style of embroidery, much like needlepainting, was done mainly as florals on linen using fine silks.

Donna Cardwell has written a book, Silk Art Embroidery: A Woman’s History of Ornament and Empowerment. It contains an interesting history as-well-as information on the technique. A great source if you collect Victorian era hand embroidered linens.

Embroidery Design

Download Instructions: Right-Click on the image. Select either “save link as” or “save image as” depending on what browser you are using. Or simply click on it, it will open in a new window and save it from there.

Find similar embroidery patterns to this one in my ebook of designs from 1859 Ladies Peterson’s Magazines. You can find the information on it here.

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Enjoy!

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