Whenever I come across monograms for an I or the J (or is the J or the I?) in old publications, I mourn the absence of one or the other, or at least of one distinct from the other.

In old monogram alphabets, it is very common to see only the I or the J. The reason? It’s really because they can be substituted for each other, in most of the scripted monogram alphabets. Whether you use the offered letter as an I or as a J is up to you – it can work for either.

You normally can’t get away with substituting an I for a J or a J for an I in a block print alphabet, but if you look at the ambiguous I-or-J form above, you can see how it works for either in this style of lettering.

The original publication featuring this alphabet only offered the ambiguous I, so I doodled a bit to come up with a letter somewhat distinct from the offered one, to use as a J:

But the more I look at the letter above, the more I realize that it is ambiguous as well – you could use my J for the I, the I above for the J, the I for the J or the I, or just the J for either the I or the J!

Are we confused yet?!

In any case, if you want two distinct letters for I and J, here they are. You decide which you want for which!

Printable Monogram Patterns

Here are the printable pages for the I and J. If you choose “no scaling” (or a similar setting) on your printer, the letters should print at 2″, 3″, and 4″ high. You can enlarge and reduce them to suit your needs!

Daisy & Rings Monogram for Hand Embroidery: I
Daisy & Rings Monogram for Hand Embroidery: J

If you’d like to find the rest of this alphabet, you’ll find the index for the Daisy & Rings alphabet here (scroll down the page). As the letters are finished and shared here on Needle ‘n Thread, they’ll be added to the index.

You can also find several other full alphabets for hand embroidery here. And if you’re looking for hand embroidery patterns in general, you’ll find those on the free pattern page here on Needle ‘n Thread.