Beautiful Vintage Floral Pattern Designs For Textiles

Nature and particular flowers have influenced patterns in textiles for centuries, from intricately embroidered Chinese silks with peonies to woven Persian carpets. This collection of free vintage floral patterns for textiles focuses on early 19th-century drawings.

Most of the floral prints on Pictureboxblue are vintage botanical paintings from Natural history books by artists such as the famous Pierre- Joseph Redoute. I thought for a change I would add a different type of flower drawing, those that are used for textile designs.

I’ve already featured some art nouveau floral design patterns of Maurice Pillard Verneuil and Christopher Dresser designs. These floral patterns were translated onto ceramics, textiles, and wallpapers.

The textile flower patterns in this collection are from the early 1800s when Chintz was very popular. They were designed before the fabulous floral patterns of William Morris.

Chintz Floral Patterns

Most printed textiles in this era involved different flowers and leaves found in nature. The cloth was printed with these floral motives in various colours. Typically, it is on a light, plain background known as Chintz.

Chintz originated in India. The cheap and popular cloth was introduced to Europe by British and Dutch Merchants in the 17th Century. The French and English banned the import of Chintz until their mills learnt how to make and print the fabrics themselves.

With the Industrial Revolution, textile production increased massively. In particular, floral pattern fabrics increased once the mills learned to print colorful flowers onto cotton fabrics.

Modern chintz usually consists of bright overall floral patterns printed on a light background, but some popular patterns are on dark backgrounds.

The most common flowers used with these vintage floral pattern designs are roses, sunflowers, tulips, jasmine, shoe flowers, daisies, carnations, etc.

The Vintage Floral Pattern Drawings

Unfortunately, I do not know the original artist who painted many of these beautiful vintage floral pattern drawings. However, I know that they were initially used for textile designs. They were painted at the beginning of the 19th Century.

This collection of flower drawings is from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. The Cooper Hewitt is part of the Smithsonian group of museums and its collections focus on decorative and design objects.

To print the vintage floral pattern design you want, click on the title above it. A higher-resolution drawing will then open in a new window on your browser. Right-click on the image with your mouse, and you will have the option to save it to your hard drive.

All the floral drawings are in the Public Domain. You are free to use them how you wish, whether it is to print and frame them for your home, or perhaps to use the flowers for crafting such as decoupage and journaling.

The collection of floral design prints is divided into three sections: designs on a light background, floral borders, and dark backgrounds.

Vintage Floral Pattern Designs For Textiles Light Background

1.  Multi-colored floral and leaf design on white ground

A few of the flowers in this pattern design look like poppies. The little blue flowers especially look a bit like Himalayan poppies.

2. Fern-like leaves, small red flower, purple star-shaped flowers surrounded by a black-dotted pattern

These flowers are painted in gouache on woven paper.

3.  Multi-colored leaf and berry design

4. Multi-colored floral and vine leaf pattern

5. Vintage Floral Pattern Multi-Colored

6.  Scattered flower and leaf designs accented with a fine dotted pattern

7. Multi-colored flowers, green and yellow leaves on lilac branches

8.  Pansy-like flowers, green leaves on bamboo branches

9. Intertwining pattern of pink, purple and blue flowers

Vintage Floral Pattern Border Designs For Textiles

These floral border patterns are inscribed in ink in the bottom right corner, Jean DuBois le Onze May 1801.

10.  Floral border design, pink flowers, green and brown leaves

11.  Flower border design, pink, yellow, blue flowers, green and yellow leaves

12. Vintage Floral border pattern, pink pansies, bluebells, green leaves

13. Flower border design, pink dahlias, purple and yellow tulips, green and yellow leaves

Vintage Floral Pattern Designs For Textiles Dark Background

14.  Four green ferns, four red flowers, four blue and white flowers against a black background

15. Pink, purple and yellow tulips

l6. Floral Pattern White and pink flowers

17. Orange, purple, pink, and white flowers on dotted brown and black ground

18.  Pink, purple, orange flowers intertwined with small white flowers with blue centers

Many of these floral designs would make lovely embroideries, check out these vintage folk embroidery designs.

I hope you enjoyed the vintage floral textile design prints. You might also want to check some of the other vintage pattern designs featured on Pictureboxblue.

• Japanese Art Design Prints
• Vintage Kimono Art
• Owen Jones Grammar of Ornament
• Traditional Chinese Patterns

If you fancy, you can Buy Me A Coffee Here.