Awesome Vintage Embroidery Pattern Site!

This morning I was browsing Pinterest (which is one of my favorite things to do!) and found a wonderful site for vintage embroidery patterns.  It's a Flickr site called Hoop Love Vintage Transfers and it's loaded with vintage transfer embroidery patterns!  You can find it here.  It's a member site and you need to have a Flickr account but it's easy to join and worth it if embroidery is your thing.

The site is specific to vintage patterns from companies that are no longer in business.  So patterns from Aunt Martha and Vogart are not allowed but there are so many -- over 7,600! -- patterns that are absolutely adorable.  Here is small a sampling: 

You can see where my heart lies with these images, but there are so many patterns to choose from:  floral, folk, alphabets, cross stitch, borders and more!

These patterns are perfect for baby blankets and clothes, bibs and aprons, tea towels, pillowcases and sheets, hankies, tablecloths and hot pads,  just about anything that could use a little handmade love and color!

Check out this site if you want to explore the mother load of vintage embroidery transfer patterns!

Free Vintage French Cross Stitch Patterns

These vintage cross stitch charts come from an old French pattern book, one of a series.  The book features the color plates without listing floss colors, so you can pick the colors you like best.

Most of the plates are a readable size, but you might want to enlarge them for easier reading.

The imagery would look lovely cross stitched onto a sampler or other textiles.  Enjoy these free patterns!

Free Vintage Colored Cross Stitch Pattern

As promised, here are some terrific vintage cross stitch patterns free for your use -- enjoy!  These patterns came from my vintage pattern book collection dated to the 1910s and 1920s.  The beauty of these patterns is that they are, for the most part small, so they can be stitched relatively quickly.  And there is no color chart for embroidery floss, so you can adjust the colors to your personal preference easily to match your decor.

These little cuties would look so pretty on a baby's dress or on a handkerchief corner:

Something for the animal lovers... love the crouching cat in the upper left corner:

The couple at the top of this chart have a sweet, old fashioned look to them that would be perfect on a sampler:

Simple patterns for corner work:

This is just beautiful, a pretty bouquet for a larger project.  And the charts at the top would make a nice edging to tea towels or finger tip towels for the guest bathroom:

 Swags and kewpie dolls awesomeness!:

More simple and easy projects, easy enough for beginning sewers or more experienced stitchers who have gift giving on the horizon:

You might want to blow these up for easier reading.  I have a few more vintage patterns to post in the next day or two for either cross stitch or filet crochet.  Just love these old time favorites -- happy stitching!

Free Simple Vintage Cross Stitch Patterns

Like I promised, here are more vintage cross stitch patterns from my vintage pattern book collection.  These are simple, easy patterns that should come together quickly and can be done in your favorite colors of choice or in monochrome.  If crochet is your thing, these can also be used for filet crochet just as the first pattern indicates.

In honor of Easter, the first pattern has some really cute little bunnies that would look adorable on baby's bib:

Love the little gnomes in the center of this pattern page and the roosters at the bottom!  What a great motif for kitchen towels:

Here are a few simple corner patterns for napkins or small pillows:

Dainty little floral patterns would look lovely on a baby's yoke dress, either cross stitched or filet crochet:

 Stay tuned, coming up next, more vintage color plates for cross stitch embroidery!

Free Cross Stitch or Filet Crochet Patterns for Baby

On a bright, sunny day like today, you'd think I'd be out reveling in it.  But no, I'm totally absorbed in my vintage pattern book collection.  Naturally, I was looking for one thing, got distracted, and found these charming patterns instead.  These patterns came from a few different vintage pattern books dated from the 1910s and 1920s and all could be used for baby or toddler themed projects.  They can be worked in either cross stitch or filet crochet.

This first set shows an example in "plate 27"below of a small bag with these "School Days" images embroidered on it.  I can imagine these little girls embroidered on a sweet toddler's dress or on a babies pillow or sheet set, or even a lunch sack made by mom for that first day of school.  Or if crochet is your passion, these charts would be easy to read and could be adapted to any number of projects.

~~

The following patterns came from a different vintage pattern book dated 1916 and could be used for dainty baby clothes, caps or booties, blankets, diaper covers, you name it.  Or they could be used for napkins, book covers, embellishments to your clothing or tea towels.  I especially the the nautical scene on the second page:

~~

If you have experience sewing and want to combine your love of cross stitch, sewing and crochet into a special dress for your favorite little girl, here's a neat project for you.  The first page below describes the process, you just need to either have a plain, simple old-fashioned style dress already, or you could make one yourself out of lawn or fine cotton.

Here's the instruction sheet:

The yoke embroidery pattern:

And the yoke and sleeve crochet charts:

~~

The following vintage patterns came from a lovely vintage 1922 pattern book.  These are also suitable for either cross stitch or filet crochet.

~~

I'll be posting more vintage cross stitch and filet crochet patterns, some in color and some like the charts just above, so stay tuned.  Who knows what I'll find next in my vintage pattern book library!

Vintage Knit Patterns for Babies

Today I thought it would be nice to share a couple of knitting patterns from my vintage pattern book collection.  This first pattern is from a small book publish in London during World War II.  The book is full of practical, economical, yet adorable patterns for children.  This little "bed" jacket would make a lovely sweater for your favorite little girl:

The directions start here:

And the second page:

In another vintage pattern book, I found this lovely little dress.  This pattern book is also from the war era but was published in Australia.  It is also full of beautiful layette patterns.

First page of the pattern:

And the second page:

I am having so much fun going through my vintage pattern book collection and am finding all kinds of treasures!  Stay tuned, my goal is to share more free patterns, check in often to see what else I've discovered to share!

Happy stitching!

Free Apron Patterns

There is just something charming about aprons.  Just looking at them brings back warm memories of delicious smells coming from the kitchen.  Yesterday I was looking through a vintage sewing pattern book and found the patterns for these two little sweethearts.  The vintage pattern book isn't dated but the designs look very 1930s to me.

As you can see from the description, the directions call for the aprons to be made with oil cloth, but any pretty cotton fabric will do.  You'll have to do a little drafting to enlarge the pattern, but it's pretty straight forward after that.

This half apron would be perfect for either crafts or gardening.  The appliqué is charming and you could embroider a cute design on any of them for a personalized look.

One of the things that I love about my large vintage pattern book collection is discovering the treasures within.  So many of them are from a thrifty time, this one from the 1930s is a prime example.  "Make Do or Do Without," as the saying goes.  Enjoy making aprons from these vintage apron patterns, they'll look just as good today as they did then!

Free Children's Vintage Cross Stitch Patterns

Looking through my stash of vintage cross stitch patterns I decided to add a few more free patterns, this time children's themed patterns.  The first two, old fashioned little girls, would be super easy and fast to sew, could be quickly stitched into holiday ornaments or stitched side-by-side for a pretty sampler for a little girl's room.

Sunbonnet Sue style:

This page depicts several old fashioned scenes of children playing..... love the skaters!

Not children, but these patterns could be used to decorate children's clothing or maybe embellish baby sheets, the bunnies, squirrel and Doxie dogs are pretty darn cute!  Of course, the scary kitties would be better for Halloween decorations and the rooster would be great on a tea towel.

And I don't know the story behind this but it reminds me of a storybook tale ..... perhaps Hansel and Gretel?

 Coming from the same page are these adorable bunnies.  Love the repeat pattern!

There is something charming about old fashioned imagery that never seems to go out of style.  These vintage cross stitch patterns are just as sweet today as there were 100 years ago when there were first published.