Draw it. Sew it.
One stroke with the Apple Pencil, and it becomes stitches: running stitch, satin, fill — with everything underneath already in place. On the iPad, with no detour through a computer. Not even to the machine.
Hi, I'm Mika.
I embroider, I sell my own designs, and I sew them on a single-needle machine at home. For years my designs started on the iPad — sketched with the Pencil — and then moved to a computer to be digitized with sliders and menus. At some point I stopped wanting to do that.
So I built the app I was missing: you draw your design with the Apple Pencil, and StitchPencil turns it into the stitch plan. Pressure sets how wide a satin column gets. Two fingers undo, three redo. Nothing is final; every object stays editable, and the stitches are worked out again after every change.
StitchPencil does not do the craft for you. How a design is built up, which stabilizer your fabric wants, what density makes sense — that stays your call. The app helps where software can help: sensible defaults, a design check that measures real values and says what it found in plain words, and a warning before a design gives you trouble on the machine.
I write this on my own, and I read every message myself. If something gets in your way, tell me: support@stitchpencil.app.
One design, start to finish
- A photo underneath. Or nothing at all. Reference images sit locked under your design so you never grab one by accident.
- Draw. Lines become running stitch, strokes become satin, shapes become fills. Press harder, the satin gets wider.
- Change your mind. Density, angle, underlay, colour, order — all of it still live, days later.
- Check. The design check reads real values and tells you in one sentence what to fix, before any thread is spent.
- Sew. Export for your machine — or send it over Bluetooth to the StitchPencil stick sitting in its USB port.
The stitches
Three stitch types. And everything built on them.
Anyone can draw a zigzag. What makes a design sew out cleanly is everything underneath it: underlay, pull compensation, ties, stitch lengths and a lot of small decisions. StitchPencil makes them for you, checks them, and still lets you change every one.
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Running stitch
Single, triple or bean stitch with a stitch length you choose. Branching line networks are joined into one continuous route — instead of needless jumps.
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Satin columns
The width follows Pencil pressure. Underlay, pull compensation, mitred corners, short stitches on tight curves and foam underlay are handled for you. If a column gets too wide to sew cleanly, StitchPencil says so.
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Fills
Tatami with angle, density and stitch pattern; contour fills that follow the outline; holes cut cleanly. No needless travels: the needle doesn't cover ground it doesn't have to.
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Sashiko patterns
Ten classic patterns, from the grid to asanoha, sewn as one continuous running stitch. The route closes cleanly instead of falling apart into single jumps.
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Gradient blends
Up to three colours flow into one another. You set the width and softness of the transition — and the stitch direction can follow the shape instead of the hoop.
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Lettering
Embroidery fonts that have passed a sewn acceptance at every size they are offered in, text on a path, letters you can nudge one by one — and your purchased stitch fonts, imported as they come from the shop.
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Cross stitch
Paint crosses on a grid with the Pencil, in as many threads as you like. A picture snaps onto the grid as a template, a QR code lands on it module by module. Sewn the way the test pieces settled.
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Font studio
Draw your own letters, sew a sample sheet, and keep the result as a font you can type with — or hand on to someone else.
You edit objects, never stitches.
Draw a shape, then change your mind: density, angle, satin width, underlay, pattern, colour. The stitch plan is worked out again from scratch each time — rather than existing stitches being laboriously altered. So a design stays understandable and cleanly built, however many changes it has been through.
Undo applies to your drawing, not to the stitch plan it produces. The stitch plan is a result. What you edit are the objects.
Pencil first
The tool is in your hand, not in a menu.
No slider for satin width
More pressure means more width. You watch the satin column grow while you draw — the band appears right under the Pencil tip.
Straight lines without a ruler
Hold the Pencil still at the end of a stroke and the line snaps clean. The same gesture Procreate taught your hand.
No stroke has to be finished
Break off a line and carry on later, or switch to node mode at any time to work the Bézier points directly.
Less hunting, more drawing
Two fingers for undo, three for redo. A double tap on the Pencil switches tools — instead of hunting for buttons.
Sewing order without lists
Tap the objects in the order you want them sewn. StitchPencil numbers them and warns you if the order would change how the design looks.
See the result, not just stitches
See your design the way it will be sewn — as thread, not as flat shapes. With a direction view and a player that walks through every colour block.
Watch it sew before the machine does.
The player shows every colour block at its true stitch size. So before the first stitch you can see when one block is out of proportion, or when a colour change buys you only a handful of stitches. A normal progress bar doesn't tell you that.
The last metre
From the iPad straight into the machine.
No USB stick to carry back and forth. The StitchPencil stick stays in your machine's USB port, and your iPad sends the design to it over Bluetooth.
Pair it once with a code from its display. From then on it's one tap in the Export: the design goes over, the stick writes it to its memory, reads it back and checks it — only then does the app say done. Your machine sees a USB stick with the design on it, the way it always has.
The stick button in the gallery shows what is on it, with the pictures of the designs you sent, and deletes what you no longer need. A microSD card gives it more room. New firmware installs from your browser, in two minutes.
Inside, it's a small board you can buy for little money; the firmware is ours. Sending is part of the Export unlock. Firmware and instructions · How it works, step by step
Not everything starts blank
Bring what you already have. And still change it.
Imports stay editable. Instead of finished stitches you get real objects — the same ones you would have drawn yourself.
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Existing artwork
Paths, arcs and transforms come across intact. Outlines become running stitch or satin, areas become fills. Colours can be matched to real thread catalogues — or you simply use the artwork as a crisp tracing template.
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Embroidery files
Open a finished stitch file (PES, DST, EXP) and StitchPencil reads the objects back out of it: satin columns are recognised as satin, parts can be split, recoloured and sewn in a new order.
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Real thread colours
Match every colour to a thread you can actually buy: Madeira, Isacord, Sulky, Brother and three more catalogues, around 1,900 shades. You see on screen what will be on the spool — and whatever colour a file format can carry, it carries.
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Reference photos
Put a photo under your design as a template, move and scale it right on the canvas, and draw over it. Reference images are locked by default so you never select one by accident.
For single-needle machines
Fewer rethreads, not fewer millimetres.
Most optimizers save travel distance. For a single-needle machine that is often the wrong target. A jump costs the machine a moment. A colour change costs you getting up, swapping the thread and rethreading.
Every colour change is you.
Get up. Swap the thread. Rethread.
So StitchPencil reduces colour changes first. The visible layering of your design stays exactly as it was: overlaps that end up covered anyway don't get to constrain the order. The design comes out identical — just with less rethreading.
The design stays the same. Only how often you have to rethread changes.
Getting it out
Export without surprises.
Before a file is written, StitchPencil checks it. Stitches that are too long, satin columns that are too narrow, objects outside the hoop — you find out here, not after the fabric and thread are gone.
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For your machine
DST universal · PES Brother · JEF Janome · VP3 Husqvarna, Pfaff · HUS Husqvarna Viking · EXP Melco, with INF for Bernina · TAP Happy · XXX Singer. Onto a USB stick — or over Bluetooth to the StitchPencil stick.
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To hand on
SVG and EPS for further editing · DXF cutting file for the plotter · PDF production sheet · PNG preview · MOV stitch-out animation. For your documentation, your shop, or desktop software.
The project stays yours.
A .hoop file is an open, documented format — not a black box you depend on. The specification is public, and anyone can read what is inside your work.
Read the specification.
Where this stands
No big company. One developer.
The App Store release is the next step, and it will be announced here.
If something is missing or doesn't work, your feedback lands directly with the person who writes the code. Most reports I can reproduce the same day, and many of them are fixed in the next build.
What StitchPencil deliberately is not: a cloud service. No account, no sync, no telemetry. Your projects stay on your iPad until you export them yourself.
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Requirements
iPadOS 26 or newer and an Apple Pencil. An M-series chip makes big designs faster, but is not a requirement. iPad only, on purpose: that is where the Pencil is.
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Documentation
The handbook and the open project format are added to as things land. Both are publicly documented: docs.stitchpencil.app and hoop.stitchpencil.app.
Tell me when something snags.
If something doesn't work or behaves oddly, send a screenshot and the .hoop file along. Most of the time I can reproduce it the same day.
You won't get canned replies or a ticket system — your message comes straight to me. I can't promise an answer in five minutes. But I read every one myself.