This blog post was originally written by Mira Ennen, the administrator of the Iris Borduurt Facebook group .
Design your own pattern
Of course there are countless beautiful embroidery patterns online (and (packages), but how much fun is it to design your own pattern or create an embroidery pattern from your favorite photo or illustration? Fortunately, there are countless options to help us with this, and for this blog, I tried and compared two well-known ones: MacStitch vs. Stitch Fiddle.
MacStitch - price: $45
Let's get straight to the point: MacStitch is extremely comprehensive, and you can really let your creativity run wild. The program is also available for Windows, called Winstitch. I believe it works pretty much the same way, but since I only have a Mac, I haven't been able to test it. MacStitch is software that you download to your computer. download And you have a million options (okay, a little less) for creating your own embroidery patterns. Honestly, I found it quite complicated, so complicated it's almost no fun anymore. There are so many options, but I just want to simply mess around with boxes or convert a photo into a pattern. I can do that now, but it's not entirely automatic, and I always appreciate that; I can immediately see what I need to do.
MacStitch is a good and very comprehensive program, but personally, it's too complex for me. If you're incredibly creative and want all sorts of complex things, you might love it, but for me, it's unnecessarily complicated. For example, you have a choice of 30 different thread types, even though I only use DMC.
Stitch Fiddle - price: free
This program is free and you do not download any software but use a website . When you open it, it's a bit more self-explanatory, and you have the option of choosing from the two most common thread types: Anchor and DMC. The boxes are normally a cheerful white, but now gray because I took a screenshot.
Here too, you'll have to do some research if you want to make really creative things, but it's essentially simpler and, importantly, free. Stitch Fiddle has paid options for more elaborate patterns, but if you just want to craft with squares yourself or convert a photo into a usable pattern, you're good to go with the free options.
Final Verdict: MacStitch vs. Stitch Fiddle
It might be a bit down to my impatience and technical proclivity, but I don't think I'll even have tested all the features in a year, especially not with MacStitch. After my brief experience, I'm definitely leaning towards Stitch Fiddle and I don't actually use MacStitch anymore. With StitchFiddle, I can do everything I want right now, and I find it much easier to work with because of its simplicity. Therefore, I recommend starting with Stitch Fiddle entirely and opting for paid options or MacStitch if you run into limitations.
