Creating your own embroidery designs is the natural next step once you’ve fallen in love with stitching. You start seeing inspiration everywhere—a sermon, a favorite verse, or the flowers in your garden—and suddenly you want to move beyond pre-made patterns to make your own vision come to life.
But for many, that’s where the hesitation kicks in. You might worry you don't have the "proper" equipment, or that you aren’t "artistic" enough.
Here is my secret: You don't need to be an artist to be a designer. Designing for embroidery isn't about fine-art drawing; it’s just about moving shapes around. If you can draw a circle, a curved line, and a leaf shape, you can make a professional-looking pattern. Here is how I take a an idea and turn it into a finished design.
1. Pick Your Tools
First, decide how you’ll draft your idea. Don't feel like you need to go buy anything fancy! Just use what you have.
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Procreate App (iPad and Apple Pencil): This is what I usually use. It gives you the freedom of a pencil while also guiding your pencil at the same time (aka, no shaky lines).
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Canva: If drawing a straight line makes you nervous, Canva is a lifesaver. You can use their fonts and simple shapes. It’s like a digital collage—you're just moving pieces around until they look right.
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Pencil and Paper: Never underestimate the classics. Try this: Draw your flowers and text on separate scraps of paper. Then you can move them around on your desk like a puzzle. Once you like how it looks, tape them down and trace the whole thing onto your fabric.
2. Text As the Anchor
For me, it always starts with the text. Whether it’s a sermon I’m hearing at church or a verse I’ve been thinking about, the words are the anchor of the design.
If you have a verse in mind but aren’t sure how to put it together yet, just wait. Take time to really sit with the words. What is the verse saying? What emotions is it conveying? You don't have to draw exactly what the verse says but if you can understand that a verse brings hope and with hope comes color—then work towards that goal.
For our 2026 Easter design, I had the text but the design just wasn't coming to me. I knew if I tried to force it, I wouldn't love the end result. While our pastor was preaching through John, it hit me instantly what the design needed to be. Don’t rush the process—some of my favorite designs took the longest to "show up."
Quick Tip: If you don't love your own handwriting, use Canva to find a style you like. Put each line of text in its own box so you can move them around easily.
3. Setting Your Boundaries
You’ve got to know what size hoop you're using. I almost always work with a 6” hoop. Knowing your space helps you decide how much you can actually fit in there!
I always draw a 6" circle, but then I draw a second, slightly smaller circle inside it. Why? Because you can’t stitch over the inner wooden hoop! Trust me, I’ve made designs too big more times than I can count!
4. Think in Shapes, Not Details
This is where most people get stuck because they try to "draw." Instead, just "build." Think of your design as a collection of simple shapes:
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Circles: Use these for flower centers or berries.
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Curved Lines: Use these for stems and vines.
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Teardrops: These are perfect for leaves
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U-Shapes: Petals of a flower.
Your sketch is just a "skeleton." It doesn't have to look pretty on its own; it's just there to hold up the beautiful stitches you're about to add.
Take a look at this video below—this is a (very fast) 10 second clip of me drawing one of our patterns. Notice I erase A LOT. But also notice the very basic shapes. Once I drew a flower exactly the way I wanted it to look, I simply copied and pasted it multiple times! No need to repeat something 10x if you’ve done it once.
5. From Screen to Fabric
Once you're happy with the layout, move it to the fabric.
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Tracing: I usually print my design and trace it using a Pilot Frixion pen. These are magic—the ink disappears with the heat of a hair dryer once you're done stitching!
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Direct Print: You can also print directly onto fabric-backed stabilizer if you want a really clean guide.
What’s Next?
Now that you have your design on the fabric, you have to decide what to do with it.
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Coming Soon: My next post in this series will cover The Abide Guide to Color—how to go to the craft store and pick a palette that abides together without clashing.
