For hundreds of years, if you were a European or American girl, chances are fairly good you would have made an alphabet sampler at some point in your education, whether at the knee of a female relative or governess or at a desk in a one-room schoolhouse. Alphabet samplers have a long and rich tradition that captures our imaginations, not only as historical records, but as a beautiful objects in their own right!

Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler | Purl Soho

Our Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler Kit is inspired by the hundreds of thousands of samplers that came before it. It takes these techniques and traditions and gives them a modern spin. Airy and graphic, fresh and surprising, our version of an alphabet sampler isn’t just for girls or parlor rooms. It’s for everyone, everywhere!

Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler | Purl Soho

Available in cool Sterling Blue or warm Cameo Pink (NOTE: This palette no longer available), our Kits include exactly what you’ll need to complete this Sampler, plus eight more sets of alphabets to play with, in a variety of sizes and styles. So, once you’ve finished your Sampler, you’ll be well equipped to personalize any fabric projects with monograms and dates, names and sayings.

Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler | Purl Soho

You’ll also find in your Kit a full-color 22-page instructional booklet that walks you through every step of making your Sampler, from putting the fabric into the hoop and plying the floss to making French knots and chain stitches. Even if you’ve never embroidered before, our Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler Kit is as informative as that governess you never had!

Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler | Purl Soho

Dip your toe into the river of history with our Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler Kit. It’s a wonderful way to honor the past while connecting to the present! -Corinne

Kit

Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler | Purl Soho

Our Alphabet Sampler Kit comes in three beautiful palettes, Sterling Blue (above) and Flax and Bisque, and each one includes…

  • 1/2 yard of woven fabric
  • 7 skeins of cotton embroidery floss in 6 colors
  • 7 paper bobbin cards
  • 4 embroidery needles
  • A 4-inch wooden embroidery hoop
  • A water-soluble fabric marker
  • 6 sheets of iron-on transfers, including the Alphabet Sampler Transfer and 8 other alphabets
  • Straight pins
  • A 12-inch wooden dowel (for hanging)
  • A full-color instructional booklet

These are enough materials to make a 15 x 12-inch Sampler (plus transfers and floss for lots more embroidery!).

NOTE: The iron-on transfers included with this Kit create lines on the fabric that are not technically erasable, and we recommend trying to stitch directly over them. However, we have found that when you lightly press the transfers with a dry iron on a mid-tone natural fabric, the lines do tend to fade with time and sun exposure.

Pattern + Transfers

Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler | Purl Soho

Don’t need the whole Kit? Our Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler Pattern + Transfers packet is also available separately. It comes with…

  • A full-color instructional booklet
  • 6 sheets of iron-on transfers, including the Alphabet Sampler Transfer and 8 other alphabets

NOTE: Please be sure to read the Note, above, about the permanence of the transfers’ lines.

Embroidery Floss Bundles

Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler | Purl Soho

NOTE: These Embroidery Floss Bundles are no longer available, but recreate these palettes or make your own with DMC’s Embroidery Floss singles!

Try the Sampler in other colors, or get the same colors we used! Our Embroidery Floss Bundles include…

Choose from nine palettes (including the two that come in the Kit). They are…

Top Row: Summer Cosmos, Cameo Pink, and Purple Crocus

Middle Row: Daffodil Yellow, Pale Hydrangea, and Clamshell Gray

Bottom Row: Green Beetle, Crystal Blue, and Sterling Blue

Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler | Purl Soho

Update: New Colors!

July 11, 2018

Joining our original Alphabet Sampler, Bisque and Flax now round out the picture with their punchy warmth. Bisque starts with a tomato-colored linen, while Flax uses a rustic neutral. Both are stitched in cream, pink, red and plum flosses… Classic!

Learn to Embroider an Alphabet Sampler | Purl Soho