Keeping Our Stitches and Our Patterns Entirely Human
When you sit down with a new cross-stitch or embroidery project, you are committing more than just your favourite fabric and floss to it — you are committing your time. Hours, weeks, maybe months (or even years!) of quiet, repetitive, grounding moments go into making a piece of textile art. Because handmade work takes time, I believe you deserve to know that the pattern in front of you has been created with that same level of care.
Lately, there's been a lot of conversation in the crafting world about how patterns are made, and I want to be entirely transparent with you about what goes on behind the scenes here at Two Little Kits.
Made by Hand; Concept to Stitches
Every single pattern you find in my shop is designed by me, by hand. I don't use shortcuts, and I absolutely do not use AI to generate my cross-stitch or embroidery designs.
For me, designing is a deeply personal and creative process. It involves playing with typography, hand-mapping individual pixels, choosing specific embroidery stitches, and selecting a colour palette that feels just right.
In the last few years, I've also made it a strict rule that every new pattern is completely test-stitched before it ever gets released to you (If you've been with me from the very, very beginning, you might remember a few early designs that weren't, but everything in recent years has been fully put to the needle & fabric!).
Why do I do this? Because a computer screen can lie, but fabric and floss don't. Test stitching ensures that the colours blend beautifully in real life, the symbols on the chart are clear and readable, and the final piece looks exactly the way it's supposed to. When you look at a listing in my shop, you can feel confident that it's a well-tested, high-quality design ready for you to stitch up.
Keeping Our Craft Human (and Protecting Our Planet)
You might have noticed an influx of massive pattern shops popping up online, churning out thousands of complex-looking designs overnight. That's because they're generated using artificial intelligence, and then processed to a cross-stitch pattern without care by dropping the generated image into a converter.
When someone sells an AI-generated pattern as a finished, functional craft design, it devalues the immense effort, skill, and heart that human designers pour into their work. AI programs don't understand the physical mechanics of textile art. They don't know how a strand of cotton sits on 18-count Aida, or how frustrating it is to encounter a massive clump of "confetti" stitches that serve no real structural purpose. It treats a slow, meaningful, grounding craft like it's a fast-fashion commodity.
Beyond the frustration it causes stitchers, there is an environmental cost to consider. It's easy to think of digital AI generation as weightless, but the data centres required to power and train these AI models consume massive amounts of energy and water. Creating thousands of digital files a day just to see what "sticks" carries a very real, physical cost to our planet.
Looking to Spot the Difference?
A while back, I wrote a detailed guide on How to Spot AI-Generated Embroidery Patterns where I broke down the visual red flags — like impossible 3D elements, weirdly shiny digital thread, and broken digital embroidery hoops. If you want to dive deep into the technical tells to look out for while shopping on platforms like Etsy, definitely give that post a read!
I feel the need to point out now, though, that AI-generated cross-stitch patterns have started to emerge. And they are… well… they're not good. And customers are the ones who are feeling the effect the hardest.
But the simplest rule of thumb? Look for a real person behind the shop. Look for real, textured photos of finished stitches, human imperfection, and a genuine love for the craft.
A Slow-Stitching Journey
Stitching is a supportive practice for so many of us — a way to slow down, unplug, and rest our minds. The tools and patterns we use should reflect that same intentional care.
When you buy from Two Little Kits, you're supporting a real person who handles everything from the first sketch to the final sample stitch. Thank you for valuing the time it takes to create things by hand, and for making my designs a part of your slow-stitching journey.
