Briggs Embroidery Transfer
Birds and Holly Pattern ~ William Briggs in the late 1800’s invented and received a patent for his hot iron embroider transfer. A special ink on paper that with a hot iron could be transferred to cloth. We’ve come a long way since then.
You can even make your own hot iron transfers using these pencils and pens. Aunt Martha’s has a kit that includes the pencils and 50 sheets of 8 x 11 inch paper.
You now have great freedom to make your own designs and transfer them to cloth. To embroider using your favorite threads and stitches. One word of caution using these Hot Iron Transfer Pens and Pencils is to embroider over all the marks because the design doesn’t wash out.
Take a look at this blog post, Vintage Colonial Woman Embroidery Transfer. It discusses the different companies that have offered hot iron transfers through the years. You’ll also find a link to a Table of Contents for Workbasket Magazine Issues.
Birds and Holly Pattern
Here’s the design:
This particular embroidery pattern was taken from one of his catalogs in the late 1800’s. Since it’s from the catalog it’s not actual size. The sizes where listed on the page with design. When ordered they would come on the paper size listed.
This pattern was listed as 11 x 13 inches. The birds and holly pattern I’ve scanned and cleaned up is approximately 8 x 8 inches. Since it’s in a JPEG format, once downloaded you can experiment with changing it’s size on your printer or in a photo editing software program. The PDF image size is smaller, about 6.5 x 6.5 inches.
Just click on it, it will open in a new window and there you can right click to save it to print, then trace onto fabric and embroider.
If you print directly from the image without saving, you will need to reduce to about 70% on your printer. Otherwise it will go over the page edges. If you save it first, then print from the file, you shouldn’t have any problem fitting it on a landscape orientation, 8.5 x 11 inch page.
Beginner’s Guide Link
This blog post with a Beginner’s Guide on How to Embroider Holly will help you with this design. It discusses the correct slant of the stitches and different shades of thread to use for the most realistic image.
PDF File Download Link
The PDF file link is below. With a PDF file format you cannot change the size or alter the design.
Briggs Embroidery Birds and Holly
The pattern is in PDF format so to read it you’ll need the Adobe Reader software on your computer. Most computers come with it, but it is free and can be found here.
Download Instructions: Right-Click the link and select either “save target as” or “save link as” depending on what browser you are using or simply click on it and save or print.
More Designs
If you’d like to see more embroidery designs, these are a couple of the most popular:
Owl Embroidery Design or Coloring Page
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Enjoy!
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