Here’s a nice little stylized rose border that can be used for your hand embroidery projects. It’s a repeatable design, so you can make it as long as you wish. The pattern prints (from the PDF below) at 3″ wide.

This is one of several “border & bands” designs that I’m putting together in a printable collection of ecclesiastical embroidery patterns. But, you might say, this doesn’t look particularly church-ish!

See, not all ecclesiastical patterns are strictly or solely “ecclesiastical” – this one, for instance, is not immediately recognizable as “church-related.” The design was used in works of church embroidery, because the rose is often used as a religious symbol in Christianity. It has been known to symbolize Christ (Low How a Rose E’re Blooming is a Christmas song that attests to this), to symbolize Mary (she is referred to as the “mystical rose” in Roman Catholicism), and you could even consider Dante’s use of the rose as a symbol of Paradise. So it’s used as a religious symbol, which makes it common to see roses in ecclesiastical embroidery, and hence, a design like this would end up in a book of ecclesiastical embroidery patterns.

Given the recent finish on the Tudor-Style Rose Tutorials, I thought a border of similar roses would be a good thing to share, just in case anyone out there is concentrating on some rose-themed embroidery.

And the pattern can be used for other things besides embroidery, too – paper crafts, cardmaking, an appliqué border on a quilt – lots of possibilities!

If you want to repeat this design and make it longer, overlap the bottom notches on the stem along the base of the design.

On the PDF, the design is oriented vertically, and it’s 3″ wide and about 10″ long:

Stylized Rose Border (PDF)

I hope you enjoy the pattern and that someone out there finds some good use for it!

You can find many more free hand embroidery patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread, if you’re hankerin’ for somethin’ else to stitch!

‘Bye, now!