Old needlework magazines usually came with iron-on transfers, some of them closing in on a century old now. It's fun to take elements from them to rework as contemporary hand embroidery patterns.
This is what I've done with Minikin Garden, a free pattern in celebration of World Embroidery Day at the end of the month, on 30 July.
I have quite a few vintage transfers filed away and was looking for something to do with the more appealing ones. My design style isn't really vintage, although I do like some of the old designs, and so I thought it'd be a good idea to take bits and pieces from the transfers and use them to create new designs, embroidered in fresh and bold colours. And because of the copyright ethics, you get them for free!
I did this for the first time last year with Blue Bird and so many of you have downloaded the pattern, more than 700 to date. It encouraged me to do the same again this year, although it didn't take much nudging because it's an easy and fun way to design and embroider something new. And I really wanted to use one of my vintage oval hoops.
You can download Minikin Garden from the free page of my website.