Embroiderers have a wealth of fantastic free patterns available right at their fingertips. All it takes to find great free cross stitch, embroidery, tapestry, and needlepoint patterns is an online search and an idea of what you would like to stitch. (Don’t forget to check out EGA’s Free Embroidery Projects Library!)
To make finding free embroidery patterns even easier for stitchers, we’ve gathered 9 free online pattern resources that we think embroiderers will love. Let’s find the right pattern for you!
The Clothing and Textiles Research Library at the Museum of Texas Tech University
An EGA member alerted us to the collection of patterns and resources curated by The Clothing and Textiles Research Library at the Museum of Texas Tech University.
The library has scanned all of its collection to make the information available online, and many 19th century books are included. EGA Lifetime Member Pat Grappe has donated many early embroidery volumes, which are now available online at the library. If you find a book that is not out of copyright, certain pages can be copied and sent to you, as time permits by the Clothing and Textile Division team. The collection includes more than just embroidery: explore it to find historical documents on fashion, quilting, sewing, fabrics and fibers, art, and more.
Explore The Clothing and Textiles Research Library online.
DMC
Next time you visit DMC.com to browse thread colors, take a peek at their selection of free patterns. DMC offers hundreds of free patterns in a myriad of styles and ranging in difficulty from beginner to advanced. DMC has offerings for several types of needle craft patterns as well, whether you’re looking for embroidery, cross stitch, macrame, punch needle, or tapestry and needlepoint.
Explore DMC’s free patterns.
Tirazain
Tiazain.com is a digital archive of tatreez patterns aimed at preserving, documenting, and sharing Palestinian embroidery. The founders created the archive as a response to the dearth of high-quality, high-resolution, affordable tatreez patterns.
Interested stitchers can search the library in several different ways: by theme, color count, project duration, and documented origin. As of this writing, there are nearly 1,000 different tatreez patterns to explore!
Explore Tirazain for free tatreez patterns.
Vintage Transfer Finds
Vintage Transfer Finds has not updated its collection in more than a decade, but it remains an excellent free pattern resource. The curator, Floresita, has performed the time-co nsuming task of digitizing hundreds of public domain images for embroiderers and cross stitchers to interpret into designs.
Explore free patterns on Vintage Transfer Finds.
Needle ‘n Thread
Mary Corbet of Needle ‘n Thread posts free patterns regularly. As of this writing, there were more than 150 free patterns available in her archive, ranging across a variety of techniques from Jacobean to cross stitch, needlelace, and more.
Mary has converted and/or adapted many of these designs from the public domain, but she has also included free designs of her own in the mix.
Explore the free embroidery pattern library on Needle ‘n Thread.
Lovecrafts
Lovecrafts has almost 400 designs in their free embroidery pattern library. While there are some crossovers from the DMC free design library, there are also plenty of great designs from brands like Anchor Crafts, Zweigart, and Paintbox Crafts.
Explore the Lovecrafts free embroidery pattern library.
Antique Pattern Library
The Antique Pattern Library has scanned and catalogued hundreds of magazines, books, journals, and other materials from the public domain across a variety of textile and fiber practices. The Catalog page reveals a daunting scroll of seemingly endless resources for the interested stitcher with time to kill. We recommend clicking Technique on the Catalog page for an easier breakdown of specific categories like cross stitch, cutwork, Hardanger, Battenberg Lace, and more.
Explore the Antique Pattern Library.
The Internet Archive
The Internet Archive holds more than 4.4 million books—and that number rises every day. The American non-profit organization aims to provide free access to millions of pieces of digitized media, including books, magazines, legal documents, dissertations, archived websites, music, and more.
The archive includes hundreds of needlework and textile books and magazines, all of which can be accessed for free with the creation of a free Internet Archive account. Users can search via terms like “cross stitch” or “embroidery” or search for known book titles.
Note: The Internet Archive has come under attack recently, with threats that it may be shut down in the future. As of this writing, the IA was still operational and lending digital media without issue.
Explore free patterns on the Internet Archive.
Coloring Books
We can hear some of our most practiced embroiderers already: coloring books, really? Yes, really! Coloring books offer impressive templates for laying down surface embroidery and cross stitch designs. Lots of embroiderers print coloring book pages and use them with embroidery transfer paper, or print designs directly onto stick & stitch wash away stabilizer.
We found three sites with free coloring book pages available to download. Explore Colorcove, Yay Coloring Pages, and Super Coloring.
We hope embroiderers love this list of free online pattern resources and find it useful when planning their next embroider project. Did we forget a resource you love? Share it in the EGA Facebook group so we can include it in a future update!
