Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes to develop a creative product? There is no magic wand, but there are some steps I tend to follow that helps give structure to the creative process of designing an embroidery pattern.
If I’m lucky, I will be going about my daily life and see a shape, texture or piece of art and an idea will come to mind of a design I want to try. But, most of the time, the luxury of waiting around for that to spark to be lit is not realistic. More often than not, I will use a more formal process, like that below, to come up with a new design. This is a brief summary so if you are interested in knowing more, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me via Instagram DM or email. Please note I don’t have an affiliation/financial arrangement with any businesses mentioned in this post…
1. Gathering inspo
To gain inspiration my go-to app is Pinterest. There are so many examples of beautiful embroidery art, as well as photos of other art (e.g., paintings, digital art) that provide motivation and that trigger needed to get the creative ball rolling. I sometimes set up a Pinterest board, or I may even troll through my previously saved pins of “art I love” to get some ideas of shapes, textures and designs. Once I feel I have enough inspiration I progress to the next step.
2. Go-to apps
Procreate is a brilliant digital art app that is popular with people who produce digital art and those who design embroidery patterns. With the Procreate app, my iPad and iPencil, I play with patterns and shapes until I come up with something I am keen to try stitching – until the pattern is stitched you never really know whether it is a hit or not. At this stage I will consider the size of the pattern as a detailed pattern or one that uses a lot of thread are best done in a smaller size embroidery hoop. Next, I import the design into Canva which makes it easier to size the circle to the appropriate size, and eventually export it as a PDF pattern.
3. The fun part
Step three is one of the most enjoyable parts of the process – choosing colours and stitch types! I love earthy tones, so my colour choices tend to centre around greens, rust, blush pink, brown and cream. If I choose to use a coloured fabric for the design, like I did for my Mystic Map design, my colours have to compliment the fabric colour.
Next, I choose the stitch types I will use for the various shapes in the pattern. I always use beginner level stitches like satin stitch, chain stitch, back stitch and french knots which give a variety of textures whilst still being within reach of beginner stitchers. You can see quick tutorials of these stitches on my Instagram story highlights and/or reels. A few of my designs have used the turkey work stitch too which is quite versatile (though has a very odd name!). The turkey work stitch can be used to create a fringe like in my Art Deco pattern, or a fluffy 3D effect - much like a Turkish rug -hence the name!
Once the last stitching section is complete, I finish off the back of my hoop. At this point I decide whether the piece will be one I will put out to the world, or whether it is one I will keep just for myself. If I think it is good enough for the world to see, the next stage is to create the step-by-step colour instructions that come with all of my patterns…but that’s a story for another day.
As I said, that’s a very quick run-down of my embroidery design process. I am super happy to answer any questions you have so feel free to send me an email at hello@tellapatricedesign.com.au anytime. Until then, happy stitching x