Transform Photos, Clip Art, and Drawings Into Unique Embroideries

Welcome to this month’s embroidery lesson! Many of you have already created portraits using the PhotoStitch tools, but today we’ll explore all five PhotoStitch Types, including some creative “beyond portraits” techniques.

The PhotoStitch Wizard/Assistant is found in the Create tab of the mySewnet™ Embroidery module/app, available with:

• CREATIVATE™ Extra (mySewnet™ Gold Software)

• CREATIVATE™ Elite (mySewnet™  Platinum Software)

PhotoStitch quickly transforms images—photos, drawings, or clip art—into thread-painted or tile-style stitch art with just a few guided steps.

What Is PhotoStitch?

PhotoStitch converts an image into a unique embroidery using stylized stitches. Choose PhotoStitch into Hoop to maximize the size of your embroidery based on your hoop, or PhotoStitch into Rectangle to draw your own stitch area.

PhotoStitch supports many image formats and works beautifully with:

• Photos

• Sketches

• Clip-art

• Line drawings

Each PhotoStitch Type comes with a guided Wizard/Assistant that walks you through selecting an image, cropping, adjusting color, removing backgrounds, selecting thread colors, and customizing stitch details.

How to PhotoStitch

Choose from five PhotoStitch Types, each offering a different artistic result:

Create Color PhotoStitch

A blended, free-motion–style color embroidery perfect for portraits or colorful clip art.

Example:

• Image: Rose2 (Samples → Sketch → Pics)

• Background erased

• Autolevel unchecked

• Density: 1

Great for memory quilts, keepsakes, or thread painting with bright images.

2. Create Sepia PhotoStitch Embroidery

Perfect for heirloom or vintage-style designs, using cream-to-brown tonal blends.

Example:

• PhotoStitch Into Hoop

• sepia kitten (Samples → Embroidery → Photos)

• Autolevel unchecked

• 7 colors

• Density: 2

• Enhance Detail unchecked

3. Create Monochrome PhotoStitch Embroidery

Black, white, and gray stitches create a bold monochrome or retro effect.

Example:

• Bicycle sketch (Samples → Digitizing → Pics)

• Flood erase all mid-gray background

• Autolevel unchecked

4. Create Color Tile PhotoStitch Embroidery

Creates a textured “tapestry” or “needlepoint” look using tiled stitch motifs.

Example:

• Butterfly 01 (Samples → Gallery → Bugs & Insects)

• Insert via Draw & Paint

• Line width: 1.5 mm

• Cropped artwork

• Diamond tiles, 3 mm

• Satin, Density 4, side-to-side

Try other tile shapes, including Square and Hexagon, for unique effects.

5. Create Linear PhotoStitch Embroidery

Artistic, stylized stitch treatments that go beyond portraiture—perfect for quilt blocks, totes, and garment embellishment.

Example:

• Rubber Duck (Samples → Digitizing → Pics)

• Flood erase background

• Autolevel checked

• Thread: deep gold

• Artistic Effect: Spiral

• Angle: 0

• Shade Range: 10

• Enhance Detail unchecked

• Scan Depth: 4

• Density: 4

Don’t forget to try the additional Artistic Effects—each creates dramatically different textures.

And One More Thing!

Looking for a deeper dive into PhotoStitch?
Check out the full PhotoStitch video lesson by Karina Thompson from Education Team.

Want to create PhotoStitch designs directly from your phone?
Download the CREATIVATE™ App in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.