Embroidery Library: Impressive Hand and Machine Embroidery Designs

While the word “library” typically brings to mind shelves full of books, the embroidery library belongs to the digital realm of the embroidery industry.

Embroidery Library is a website featuring numerous digital embroidery machine designs you can use with your embroidery machine or embroidery sewing machine

Some of us are always hungry for more embroidery ideas. So if you’re one of these embroidery junkies, keep reading; we’ve got a little something for you!

Petro from The Seaman Mom claims that

“Embroidery is a beautiful way to add personality and flair to your clothes, accessories, or home décor. “

No one ever put it better. 

Also, with embroidery, you gain a way to show your close ones that you care. Just think, is there anything more moving than receiving a stitched, personalized, heartfelt message on a piece of clothing or accessory? 

For starters, have a look at these several machine embroidery tips by The Seaman Mom if you’re just starting and want to do your best: 

    1. Start with a small project—hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day; give it time. Go slowly and be patient. Results will come when it’s their time.
    2. Practice a lot before moving to an actual embroidery project—again, it’s all about growing to be good at it. Learn your craft step by step, and one day you’ll do all of your projects beautifully in a blink of an eye;
    3. Use a simple design first. Spare yourself too many curves in the pattern, or you’ll risk a premature burnout.
    4. Prepare a few bobbins per project. Use the same thread type and color as the spool thread.
    5. Continue testing your stitches until you find your project’s perfect length and width.
    6. Sew slow and avoid sudden moves—it’s not a race; this craft will test your patience eventually, anyway;
    7. Use a magnifier if your eyes aren’t the sharpest.

Back stitch step embroidery
Image source: DiCraft

In the paragraphs below, you’ll discover the complete offer of

    • the Embroidery Library and 
    • other websites with similar scope—to offer you the experience of working with the most imaginative, refined, and professional embroidery patterns;

We bet you’ll love the possibilities embroidery libraries offer to crafters!

There are a few more topics you want to tackle with the Super Label Store blog, especially if you’re a novice in this industry:

Hand embroidery flowers
Image source: Pinterest

Embroidery library designs

Let’s put your imagination on fire before we get to more practical issues! 

Embroidery stitches can take all forms and shapes, from

Sunflower and lavender embroidery
Image source: Pinterest

What exactly does the Embroidery Library offer? With Embroidery Library embroidery designs by category, you’ll go through:

    • Alphabets,
    • Applique,
    • Borders and Corners,
    • Children and Nursery,
    • Christmas (check these Embroidery Library Christmas designs),
    • Crafty and Sewing,
    • Creatures of Air,
    • Creatures of Land,
    • Creatures of Water,
    • Fantasy and Fairy Tales,
    • Fashion,
    • Flowers and Gardens (check our take on flower embroidery pattern options),
    • Food and Wine;

These Embroidery Library machine designs cost from $1 to around $19 if you buy them as a pack—let’s say you pick an entire alphabet instead of one letter.

Here’s the second part of embroidery library patterns from Embroidery Library:

    • Friends and Family,
    • Holidays,
    • Home Decor,
    • In-The-Hoop

In the Hoop (also known as ITH embroidery) means that you create all or most of a complete 3D object on the embroidery machine (if you own a Brother embroidery machine, have a look at this blog). 

Machine embroidery designs
Image source: Embroidery Library

In other words, you don’t put a design onto something, but make your work right there on the embroidery machine, whether it’s 

Get to know the notion of embroidery hoop thoroughly by clicking this link. 

Embroidery library
Image source: How May I Help You

    • Lace (check them out on Embroidery Library),
    • Patriotic,
    • Quick Stitch,
    • Quilts—patterns suitable to use for your gorgeous DIY quilt,
    • Redwork and Vintage,
    • Religious,
    • Seasons,

Check out this “Secret Santa – Machine Embroidery Design Collection” on the Embroidery Library YouTube channel to get inspired:

    • Sketches and Toile,
    • Sports and Hobbies—basketball, bingo, cycling, and even fishing—you name it!
    • Suns and Globes,
    • Transportation,
    • Travel and Scenery,
    • World Cultures; 

If you prefer to kick off your embroidery journey at a slow pace, there are some Embroidery Library free designs to try as well. 

With any embroidery library free download, you can test if the designs work for you before getting to the actual purchase. Tackle also our take on free embroidery designs to gain a broader perspective.

Aquarium whale air balloon embroidery
Image source: Daily Embroidery

Besides Embroidery Library, there are many other websites that also offer plenty of embroidery library design options, such as Daily Embroidery. This embroidery library library features:

Category Quantity
All Embroidery Designs 7208
Decorative & Floral patterns 1890
Todays Member Designs 1189
Fonts and Monograms 285
In the Hoop patterns 69

Within this library of embroidery stitches, you’ll pay around $2.99 for a single design, but many are also for free. 

If counting on the embroidery library free option doesn’t go well with your desires and aspirations, join the Daily Embroidery Club for $9.99 monthly and get 

    1. free access to the entire 10-years old free download embroidery designs library, and
    2. two new designs every day;

We know you love surprises!

Hand embroidery library designs
Image source: My Modern Met

As noticed by My Modern Met, embroidery has been around forever, and it has ancient roots in every culture around the globe. 

Although embroidery used to be utilized as a technique to mend clothing, with time, it has transformed into a creative activity that crafters enthusiastically use until this day.  

It’s a no-brainer that people did embroidery entirely by hand in the past. Today, to speed up the process, we have the freedom to use embroidery sewing machines (which can both sew and embroider) or embroidery machines.

We can see hand embroidery growing in popularity in recent years in the works of contemporary artists working outside of the textile or fashion industry.

The good thing about hand embroidery is that it doesn’t require a costly embroidery machine. You need only a couple of embroidery supplies for hand embroidery—reminds My Modern Met:

Embroidery supplies Description
Embroidery thread (also known as embroidery floss The industry standard is the DMC brand, with a ton of colors available and a skein for less than a dollar. Also, the brand has existed since 1746.
Embroidery needle They usually come in packs of many sizes. Pick the suitable needle depending on the types of fabric you’re using for your projects (tackle types of cotton fabric on our blog). 
Embroidery fabric Try pure cotton fabric to launch your embroidery experience with style. Ensure that your fabric doesn’t have stretch (cotton blends do, so avoid them) and that its weave isn’t too loose.
Scissors Embroidery scissors are sharp enough to trim thread and small, palm-size
Embroidery hoop Hoops vary in size, ranging from a few inches in diameter to over a foot.

Besides the basic supplies to embroider by hand, if you want to stay organized, consider also incorporating:

    1. plastic bobbins are especially handy if you have a lot of thread. Before you start stitching with a thread, write the color on one of these bobbins and then wind it around the plastic piece. When you run out of the thread, you’ll know what type of skein you should buy,
    2. thread organizer—convenient to store your thread, embellishments, or other embroidery supplies

Clever thread organizer ideas
Image source: Sarah Maker

Are you ready to give hand embroidery a try?

Get yourself a cute little embroidery kit and check out these hand embroidery library collections available online:

    • Hand Embroidery Patterns (General Categories),
    • Monograms for Hand Embroidery—Free patterns for decorative initials from vintage publications,
    • Ecclesiastical Embroidery Patterns for church-related embroidery,
    • Online Resources—links to sites with free embroidery patterns,

—recommends Mary Corbet from the Needle’n’Thread.

Embroidered people portraits
Image source: Brwn Paper Bag

Another precious resource of embroidery resources from all over the world (but seriously, it’s gold!), you’ll find on Antique Pattern Library, where patterns are presented both as 

    1. a detailed page, and 
    2. PDF version;

Enough information for now? It’s time for a dessert!

Here’s a little treat for hand embroidery freaks. Watch an “11 Gorgeous Flower design Ideas: Hand Embroidery Easy flower design with Simple Stitches” video by Nakshi Katha to get a quick inspiration pump up:

But embroidering, whether by hand or machine, isn’t the only way to get your creative juices flowing. 

Another way to make your quilt, bag, or t-shirt look more fancy is embellishing them with custom woven labels by Super Label Store

The company’s mission is to supply sustainable, affordable, and customized solutions for its customers. No wonder Super Label Store blog features blogs such as

    1. upcycle meaning and definition,
    2. upcycle fabric scraps,
    3. upcycle sweatshirts, and similar!
    • DIY/clothing crafters at home, 
    • textile/sewing fanatics,
    • (small/starting) clothing brands,
    • fashion designers,
    • owners and managers of hotels, bars, and hospitality businesses,

who want to customize their textile, clothing, towels, sheets, or accessories are welcome to design and order these woven labels, care labels, and/or hang tags to take all types of clothes they’re making to another level.  

Now that we covered the inspirational part, let’s get to practical knowledge.

So, the question now is not how amazing it will be to use an embroidery library, but how to put embroidery library machine embroidery designs in use.

Sara Snuggerud from Sewing Mastery explains “How to Download & Transfer Embroidery Designs to a USB Stick” in the video published on the YouTube channel of Heirloom Creations:

Let’s have a look at a few highlights of this video content:

    1. Embroidery designs downloaded from the internet are only for your embroidery machine to use; it means that your computer will probably not recognize the type of file they are, so avoid opening them, so not to create unnecessary confusion for the system.
    2. You need an actual computer, not just a mobile or tablet, to download embroidery library machine designs because these items don’t have a USB port.
    3. Some embroidery machines come with a USB stick, which is perfect for transferring the patterns from the computer. Also, some models of embroidery machines require you to use only a 1GB USB stick, so if you don’t have a dedicated USB stick that came together with your machine, you’ll have to purchase such a small-sized tool by yourself;

Free download embroidery library
Image source: Royal Present

Any more tips from Sara from Sewing Mastery?

    1. Once you download your chosen design from the website, you’ll notice that it came zipped. Remember that you need to open the zipped folder and take the patterns out before transferring your designs to a USB stick. Then, use the command: unzip or extract while the files are still on your computer.
    2. Once you have your unzipped embroidery patterns, you can copy and paste them to your USB stick.

In case you come across any issues at this stage, follow Patricia from Hayes Sewing Machine Co, who explains “How to Transfer Embroidery Designs From Your Computer to a USB Stick”:

    1. Remember that if you downloaded embroidery library quilting designs or other professionally prepared embroidery patterns from the dedicated website, you don’t need any additional software to make them work on your embroidery machine.
    2. It’s possible that once you put a USB stick with patterns in your embroidery machine, it will show files you don’t recognize, especially if your design went through the Mac computer. Fortunately, there is nothing wrong with your embroidery machine or your computer. This additional file does nothing for us, so just bypass it and find your patterns.

Embroidery on a regular sewing machine
Image source: The Seaman Mom

If Sara’s explanation wasn’t helpful enough, listen to Becky from Power Tools with Thread. 

In this “Machine Embroidery File Management from the Internet to Your Computer. Extract Files from Zip Files” video, you can see how to perform the transfer, so there’s no doubt you get it right!