Nautical compass embroidery
These nautical compass designs evoke images of seafarers on wild, uncharted oceans using the elements and their instruments for navigation.
Embroidered coasters are perfect to set the scene for summer drinks at sunset. We stitched ours out on felt and added another layer of felt or vegan leather at the back, attached with a border stitch. They also look great on a tote bag.
As a bonus, we have also digitised these three designs as ScanNCut cutting files – find them here.
Download embroidery designs
Embroidery data
Nautical compass 1
Size: 95 x 95mm
Stitches: 10 710
Colours: 1
Nautical compass 2
Stitches: 19 426
Colours: 1
Nautical compass 3
Stitches: 19 426
Colours: 1
Fabric suggested
Our embroidery designs are great to sew on any medium to heavy weight fabrics, or well stabilised thinner and stretchy fabrics. We used washable acrylic felt as it is a good choice for coasters and does not need any finishing around the edges.Stabiliser required
felt for our coasters and stabilised it with a stiff tearaway stabiliser.Use the right stabiliser for your project. If you need help knowing which stabiliser would be best for which fabric, read our helpful blog post.
General design notes
The designs have lots of small detail – changing your needle and starting with a new bobbin is a good idea.
Finishing options for coasters
To make coasters, we recommend that you add a backing of felt, cork fabric or vegan leather to conceal the back of the stitching as well as giving the coaster a firmer finish.
The border stitching will secure the backing to the front as well as add a finishing touch to the design.
Here are two ways to add a border around the embroidery:
Option 1: add an embroidered border (as shown on bag)
Open the design on your Brother embroidery machine and add a border from the machine’s built in designs.
Size it correctly and proceed to the embroidery menu.
If you will use the design on a bag like we did, go ahead and sew out the border, remove from the hoop and trim.
If you want to make a coaster, do not remove the embroidery from the hoop after you have stitched out the compass embroidery design. Remove the hoop from the machine and tape a piece of felt/cork/vegan leather to the wrong side of the embroidery. The piece of backing fabric should be large enough to accommodate the border and also leave room to trim around. Return the hoop to the machine and embroider the border through both layers of felt. Remove from the hoop, tear out the stabiliser and trim around the edges with a rotary cutter.
Option 2: add a border of running stitch or decorative stitches
This option works best for something that is two layers thick, like a coaster.
After your embroidery has finished, remove the felt from the hoop. Spray some fabric adhesive on the back of the embroidery and lay it onto another piece of felt/cork/vegan leather. On the embroidered side, mark out lines with tailor’s chalk (or similar) and then sew the border in your chosen stitch. Finally, trim the edges of the coaster and remove any visible stabiliser.
