Monograms have long been a part of hand embroidery. They’re commonly seen on handkerchiefs and household goods. I wrote a little blurb on Initials for Embroidery a while back, and since I’ve always had an interest in monograms and old linens with monograms on them, I thought I’d share some monogram patterns.
This particular monogram – the letter A – comes from a monogram alphabet that I have in an old, old, old booklet. It’s one of those pamphlets that’s falling apart, yellow with age, and not of much use unless scanned and cleaned up. So I’ve been doing just that. The booklet is of French origin. It doesn’t have a cover, but there’s a French address on the bottom of one of the pages. It was a gift from a friend who loves antique book hunting, but isn’t too crafty, so it ended up in my hands.
It’s from a series of “Sajou” pamphlets published in France. Some of the pamphlets can be found online. The best place to find the old Sajou alphabets is through the Patternmaker blog. Most of the alphabets there are for counted work, but quite a few of the line drawn, surface embroidery alphabets are available, too.
Here’s the “A.” You can shrink it or enlarge it as you wish. I think this is a particularly pretty monogram, and it would look great with the letter and the vines outlined in stem stitch, the flowers and dots worked in a padded satin stitch, and the leaves filled with a seed stitch.
Right click on the letter to save it to your computer, and then adjust it to the size you want.
Have fun with it!
It seems the one you have is this one, 346: http://www.lamaisondanael.com/livrets_nouveaux/sajou346/sajou346.php (second I clicked, I got lucky)
I was gonna ask for M and P, but there are already there 🙂
Excellent – thank you for the direct link. I had a look – it’s the same, not quite as “dirty.” I like the cleaned up versions! Thanks for the link, and have fun with the M and P.
How would you suggest I save a copy of the letter I want. I tried copying but it did not work.
Thanks.
Hi, meeta –
You right click on it and select “save as,” then save it to your computer. That’s the way I do it, anyway!
Hope that helps!
A cleaned up J and T would be very much appreciated.
I wanted to thank you for this beautiful design. I did it in padded satin stitch on pure wool felt as a hanging ornament. It was wonderful design to stitch, and only took an hour or so.
I’m rather new at this and I did have quite a bit of trouble keeping my satin stitch smooth. Have you already written a post about satin tips that I’m missing?
-Christiana
I love these letters, and wonder if you have B-Z cleaned up to look like this A? I can use all 26! Also, I’ve read your posts on transfer methods – which method would you recommend for a single letter?
Thank you.
Thanks for the link, Mer. I think I could work lots of presents withthese ideas and a great alternative to cross stitching.
Mary, I have a set of letters that I found in an old magazine, but the letter I would want, ‘M’ is missing, but they are great for plain statin stich, would you like a photocopy of them?
Maybe I can scan and load into my photobucket account and post the link for others?
Fantastic! Beautiful alphabet – thanks so much for posting it. Good for use in silk painting too!
hey i worked the letter in cretan stitch yeah i modified the letter a bit …but on the whole it went fine.i gave more emphasis on the middle band.and i loved…thanks for the design and the stitch…(right now its my favourite.)
Please help. I love the letter "A" you posted, but can't find the other letters. I've searched using the info given in the previous comments but nothing……..I would really like the rest of the alphabet. Many thanks, Janis
I would LOVE the letters J and N. I want to do an embroidered pillow cover for my friend who just got married and while her first name starts with an A I need the J and N to complete it….
Any luck of getting letters H and R? A friend of mine just found out her unborn baby has anencephaly, and I’m hoping to make an embroidered placard for her with her baby’s name on it. These letters would be perfect 🙂
I would love the letters; “N” “L” “V” “R”
These are beautiful!
Thank you
Does anyone have the full alphabet?
Thanks!
I would love to see the rest of the alphabet when you have time to post them. Even if you just post them “dirty” we can clean them up ourselves. Thanks so much!
I read that you are scanning pages and cleaning them up for the Letters. I would like to offer an easy suggestion. I also scan pages for my grandchildren and to clean them up, I open them with MS Paint and save them in monochrome bitmap. This makes them completely black & white. It takes no time at all. If you haven’t tried this; please do. If you need any help with this, please let me know. I have enjoyed visiting your site and will be hoping to see more of the flowered fan letters soon.
b
br
bri
bril
brill
brilli
brillia
brillian
brilliant
brillian
brillia
brilli
brill
bril
bri
br
b
any chance of doing a “M” pleasee!!!
I’ll try – one of these days. There are a few other monogram styles on Needle ‘n Thread in the meantime, with M’s, if you want to check them out. They’re on this page: https://needlenthread.wpengine.com/2008/06/monograms-for-hand-embroidery-index.html Hope that helps! ~MC
Hi,Im from IRAN.Tanks a lot my FER
Hi Fatemeh,
What type of embroidery do you do? Is there a kind that is traditional in Iran? I like Persian rugs.
can you do an i for me? please & thanks
Mary, I saw you do a B in this design for a towel. Do you happen to have that image saved somewhere? Or a source where I can find it?! I’d love to try it out! Frankly, I’d love the whole alphabet 🙂
hi there, i would love to have a copy of your ‘O’ of this please. this is so beautiful. thanks.
H, J, and K PLEASE!!
how do i do this patter in diffrent letters
I was wondering what kind of paper i would print this on to transfer it to a flour sack dish towel?
Hi, Kymbery – the easiest method is to print on regular paper and then trace it onto the towel. If you put a light source behind it (for example, tape it to a sunny window and then tape your fabric over it), you’ll be able to trace it easily if you can’t see it well enough through the fabric. Hope that helps! MC
Good morning! I don’t know if this page is still working, but the links below are not.
Both lead to a Japanese
dating site! I would like the K and the T cleaned up if you have a free moment. I would be so grateful! Thanks
Alison
Thanks, Alison – correcting that now! ~MC
Hi Mary,
Could I get the H, if it available?
Thanks so much, Cindy
Hi, Cindy – I never finished cleaning up this alphabet, because right around the time I started to, I began learning how to trace in vectors and I never got back to this one. In any case, it’s an old Sajou pamphlet and you can find it online here: http://patternmakercharts.blogspot.com/2010/03/sajou-no-346.html
En español por favor!
How very wonderful to find your article! I’d seen this letter A, first, on a tattoo site, and had wondered what the pattern/logo name might be. Does your old French book happen to give it a name?
I so would like to see all the other letters in the same pattern…
Many thanks!
Linda
Mary!
I spoke too soon! I’m so very sorry… After I’d posted my comment, somehow the inquiries/comments from below were visible. I see you’d already posted the link and for the correct website.
If you’ve ever cleaned these up, please let us know. Otherwise, I’m eternally grateful!
Bless you and thank you,
Linda
I really like your website, at this point in time I am interested in fine quality handkerchief linen to do white embroidery. Do you have a particular embroidery thread to recommend for such a project?? Barbara.
Hi, Barbara – I would probably use coton a broder #30 in white. #30 is the finest size currently available. You can find it at Lacis online.
Good Afternoon!
I wanted to know if you have a set of this alphabet in both upper & lower case available for purchase.
I look forward to your response – Thank you!
Hi, Carol – Thanks for your question! I don’t have lower case alphabets right now, but I am working on some hand-lettered lower case alphabets that I hope to turn into something suitable for embroidery. But it will be a while!
Where can I find the Y in this type?
Thank You