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Design Your Own Embroidery Pattern From A Photo

Ever wondered how to design your own embroidery pattern from a photo? In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to do it with tracing paper.

I know a lot of people are always looking for an automated way to do this, but I would argue that creating the design by hand (on paper or a drawing tablet) is the best way.

There are plenty of cross stitch generators, but there really isn’t a good software (that I have found) for automatically creating line drawings out of a photo for surface embroidery. Ultimately, by designing the analog way, you have more control over how you create the design, and it will also help you learn how to observe and draw better.

Grab a pen or a pencil and let’s get started!

Supplies You’ll Need

  • a reference photo
  • a pen and/or pencil
  • tracing paper
  • light box (optional)
embroidery design next to reference photo

How To Create An Embroidery Pattern From A Picture Or Photo

For this tutorial, I used an image from Unsplash which is a great website to browse if you’re looking for good reference photos to use. (It’s always important to make sure you’re using an image you have permission to use.)

First, print out the reference photo, making sure it is the proper size you want the design to be.

Place the tracing paper over the image. If you have a light box available, you may want to use it so you’ll be able to see the reference photo more clearly.

making an embroidery pattern from a photo - tracing the reference photo

Step 1: Outline The Shapes

Start by outlining the general shapes of the photo. Make sure to only include the parts of the reference photo you’d like to include in your design.

Step 2: Add In Smaller Details

Once you have the outline and you’re happy with the overall composition, start adding in smaller details.

For this example, I marked out some simple shapes and lines for the flowers and leaves on the teacups. Since these elements are so small, I kept the shapes very basic; just enough to use simple outline stitches and fill stitches like the satin stitch or woven wheel.

Keep in mind what kinds of stitches you may want to use as you’re designing the embroidery. For example, if I only plan to outline the arms and the teacups, it wouldn’t be necessary for me to add in a bunch of marks for the shading along those areas.

However, if I plan to add more detail into a design and completely fill it in (i.e. for for a thread painting), it would be helpful to mark out where there are visible changes in colors and shading.

Step 3: Refine Your Design

Take a look at the design without the reference image behind it. Are you happy with the general composition? Do you think it will be relatively easy to follow?

If there are any changes you want to make to the design, now is the time to play around with it and fix things!

You can continue drawing on the same sheet of tracing paper or grab a new sheet to further refine.

Extra Tips and Considerations

  • I find it easiest to keep the design simpler to start. Sometimes adding too many marks in the design will make it confusing to follow and more challenging to transfer to the fabric. Remember, you can always go back in and add more marks later!
  • The reference photo is just a guide; not necessarily the only way to draw something! You can change things around as you see fit or even add additional designs or subject matter.
  • For even more information, check out my Patreon. I have exclusive tutorials for creating and planning thread painting designs as well as tutorials that go over illustration and design principles.

Next Steps

After you have finalized your design, it’s time to transfer it to the fabric! Learn a few different handy embroidery transfer methods.

Keep Learning

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