Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) is affecting our lives in a multitude of new ways. Every type of art/maker community is being affected, including those of us who are hand embroiderers. If you have searched for a pattern to stitch recently, you’ve probably seen generative AI “patterns” for sale, with “photos” of the work that can look 100% real. If you have ever clicked on anything embroidery related or participated in embroidery groups on Facebook or followed Instagram embroidery hashtags, you have seen images of embroidery hoops scroll by in your feed that you probably thought were real.

My goal for this post is not to tell you that AI is good or bad. I encourage you to do your own research on the implications of Generative AI on the intellectual property rights of human artists, as well as the increasingly-worrisome environmental issues. What I want to do here is discuss AI’s impact on the hand embroidery community so that you can be fully aware of what it is and use that knowledge to make informed opinions as you shop for patterns or participate in embroidery discussions on any of the social media channels. The two points I will be discussing are:

• How to identify an AI-generated embroidery design

• How the rapid proliferation of AI embroidery designs and images affects all of us, whether as purchasers of patterns and kits or designers selling their designs

Very briefly, what is AI? This might be completely new to you, so a quick definition will be helpful. AI is Artificial Intelligence. Generative AI is technology that finds patterns in databases and uses that information to create new content. When someone puts a prompt into an AI program (an app) that app, which has been “trained” on hundreds of millions of images scraped from the internet, produces a mash-up of images that correlate with the prompt. For example, I used the prompt “create a hand embroidery hoop with colorful flowers and detailed leaves on a green background,” and the image below is what it returned. The whole process, from writing the prompt to seeing the results, took less than 10 seconds.

If you saw an image like this for sale as a pattern or in your FB or Instagram feed and it wasn’t clearly labeled, would you recognize it as AI? Probably not, because at first glance it would be very easy to see this and believe that someone had stitched it with a needle and thread. So how can you identify an AI “embroidery” image? I’ll be honest and tell you that AI is getting better and better every day. Just a few months ago the tell-tale signs of an AI image were fairly easy to spot, like hands with six fingers and bizarre hoop screws. But now it seems that both the technology itself and its users are learning from their mistakes.

However, there are still some ways to judge whether an image is AI. The most important thing to do is LOOK CLOSELY. Don’t automatically assume an image of “embroidery” like this is real. Although here’s a funny aside - recently I shared the image below (a recent pattern/kit that I personally designed, stitched, and photographed, so I know it is 100% real) in one of my favorite FB embroidery groups (hello Modern Embroidery stitchers!!). Someone commented they thought it was AI at first. I was flattered, truly.

But that situation reinforces my advice to look with intention at embroidery images you see before you decide if it’s real (or not).

How To Identify An AI Embroidery Image

-AI images all have a smooth, velvety perfection to them. The textures flow and the colors are so rich you just want to reach out and touch them. This is why, at first glance, they appeal to us and garner so much attention. Sometimes it seems like they have a smooth plasticity to them, where the “stitches” look more like polymer clay. The "thread" appears to curve in flowing lines that aren’t realistic for actual thread stitched into real fabric. Here’s an example of that.



-The lighting is often dramatic, with glowing highlights and rich shadows. Sometimes the whole image seems to have a radiant, light-filled glow. The “thread” appears to sit on top of the “fabric," creating strong shadows. Look at this closeup of the flower hoop. See how the “stitching” seems to float on top of the "fabric?" Note all of those deep shadows.



-Zoom in and look at the background fabric. Often it will look like dots, rather than a textured weave, although AI is getting better at this. Here’s a closeup of the fabric on the flower hoop.



-Most likely you will find weird shapes or lines that don’t make sense - branches that go off in odd directions, flower petals that are blurry, or bizarre shapes that just don’t look right. Here are some examples of odd lines and shapes.





-Remember when I said hands were a problem? Even though AI has learned to make hands more realistic, it still doesn’t always manage to do a good job. At first glance, the hands here look pretty good, right?



But when you zoom in, one finger has a fingernail missing. Poor woman...maybe she lost it in a violent encounter with some silk thread?



-Speaking of hands, it’s very common (especially when “patterns” are for sale) to see a hand holding a hoop over a soft, blurry background. I’m not saying that this is instantly an indication of an AI image, because I’ve taken photos like this with my own work. But there’s still a smooth perfection to an AI image vs. the same type of photo of a real hoop. Here’s a comparison - my work is on the left, and the AI image is on the right. (Did you notice the eerily-long pinky finger on the AI image?)



-Sometimes the easiest thing you can do is READ. It is becoming more common for images to be labeled as AI. Etsy now requires sellers to classify their listings as being created with AI, but just know that not every seller using AI indicates this, or if they do it's buried so far down you don't see it. Scroll through the WHOLE description and see if they state it was made using generative AI.

So now that you can more easily identify it, let’s discuss the impacts of AI on the embroidery community. I’ll try my best to be brief and non-judgmental for this part, but no promises, since I have some strong feelings about this aspect of AI.

Selling “Patterns”

Remember when I said it took less than 10 seconds for me to create that floral embroidery image? Well, that ease and quick return with minimal effort makes it very appealing for sellers to create many, many, MANY designs to sell to you. They can open a new Etsy shop and within 48 hours list a hundred (or more) pattens for sale. Again, I’m not telling you whether this is right or wrong, but if you are looking to purchase a pattern, make sure you are aware of a few things:

-Probably all you’re going to get is a digital line drawing of the design, maybe without any actual stitch or color suggestions. If you want any kind of actual instruction about how to create the design shown in the color “photo,” you won’t get it.

-Along with that, the “stitches” shown in the “photos” don’t really exist, so you won’t truly be able to get the result that the “photos” show you. I don’t know about you, but I would be very disappointed if I wanted my finished hoop to look like the picture, but it was literally impossible for that to happen. Sometimes there are stitches that can perhaps mimic what was created by AI, but often, there just are not.

-The creator hasn't actually stitched the design, so if you are stitching that design and have a question, they won’t be able to help you.

-All of this would be disappointing for anyone, but especially for new stitchers. Trying to learn stitches or techniques from an image of something that doesn’t actually exist with no instructions or help would be frustrating at best, but even worse, might make you quit stitching all together. As someone who loves to teach people about embroidery techniques that makes me sad, because it doesn’t have to be that way. (More on this further down.)

Selling “Kits”

-AI generated PDF patterns are much more common than kits at the moment, but my guess is that will change. But right now there are indeed kits available that are obviously AI. Below is an example. The description says it comes with an “instructions guide,” but I'm not sure how that’s going to work out since there’s no way to actually create this design with a needle and thread so that it looks like this:



Impacts On Designers And Sellers

Because AI is so easy and fast to create, AI “patterns” are flooding the marketplace. They’re also really cheap/inexpensive (which means they sell tons and tons of these), and they end up taking up most of the space on the first page (or first several pages) of marketplaces like Etsy. What this means for sellers creating non-AI patterns/kits is that potential customers never even see the designs that actual human embroiderers have created. Along with myself, all of the designers I know work REALLY hard to give our customers beautiful designs with lots of detailed instructions, photos, and diagrams, along with personalized help if you need it while you’re stitching. I can spend weeks or months creating one new pattern or kit, so it’s incredibly disheartening to see AI patterns sucking up all the air in the room.

It’s Time To Bring This Jumbo Jet In For A Landing

This has been a lot of info, I know. But there’s one other heartbreaking impact of the extreme proliferation of AI images, and that’s how they make stitchers feel.

Every single day I see AI images posted in embroidery groups or on various embroidery pages. And what inevitably accompanies these images of "embroidery?" Dozens, even HUNDREDS of comments with people gushing about how talented the artist is. "Stunning," "OMG," "This is SO PRETTY..." The praise is endless, and there is question after question with people asking how to make it or what technique was used to stitch the design. I saw a post on an "embroidery" page that had 325 comments. Only FOUR people recognized it as AI and called it out as such. You might wonder why the people running these embroidery pages persist in posting AI embroidery images. It's because they get huge numbers of people to click and comment on those photos, and they potentially get paid for every comment or click. Trust me, they're not constantly posting AI images because they want to grow an engaged embroidery community and encourage vibrant discussions about stitching. They want to get paid. If you see an AI image on one of these pages, please don't feed this cycle.

But the comments that break my heart are these:

"I'll never be this good."

"I wish I could stitch this well."

"I'm just starting out...how can I make my work look like this?"

"My stitching looks awful compared to this."

My goal when I create an embroidery design or chat with other embroiderers on my Instagram or in FB embroidery groups is to encourage stitchers and cultivate a love for this wonderful, relaxing type of needlework, regardless of whether they just picked up a needle and thread an hour ago or have been stitching for years. I don’t want to see anyone feel like they will never be “good enough” because they can’t match the unattainable perfection created by an AI computer program. Hopefully, now that you are armed with the information to know how to spot an AI “embroidery” image, you can choose to decide what role it plays in your stitching journey.