Curious about how to get started in surface design? In this step-by-step beginner tutorial, Spoonflower artist Anda Corrie walks you through how to create your first seamless repeat using the app Procreate®, an iPad and an iPad-compatible stylus pen. With loads of photos, easy-to-understand steps and insider knowhow, Anda shares how you can turn any design into a seamless repeat.

Orange tigers dance and walk through small patches of green grass on a yellow background. The words How to Design a Seamless Repeat with Procreate® are to the left in black text. The background of the image is bright yellow.
An example of the type of seamless repeat you can make after you follow this tutorial!
Featured design: Big Tigers by anda

Anda: Ever since I discovered the drawing app Procreate, I have been designing my fabric almost entirely digitally. In fact, I have been designing fabric mostly from my couch, and can have it completely uploaded to Spoonflower and in the mail without getting up at all, ever (except to refill my coffee). 

But, like almost everyone creating fabric on their iPads while sitting on their sofas, at first I struggled to create repeating patterns without errors. When I started using Procreate, the app had no easy tool for offsetting a design like I was used to. For an embarrassingly long time I was using a very precise method I like to call “eyeballing it”—and as you can probably guess, all my swatches were plagued with pixel lines and I was wasting a ton of time… and proofs. 

Currently, Procreate still doesn’t have an offset feature. However, it now includes a tool called Snapping, which makes the process a lot easier to manage. The method below will walk you through the steps to create seamless repeating designs, while cozily ensconced in a throw blanket and listening to your favorite podcast. Have fun! 

Steps to Create Your First Procreate Seamless Repeat

1. Create a new canvas. 

I almost always work in an 8” x 8″ square at 300 dpi when designing patterns on an iPad. I like this size because 8” x 8″ is the size of a Spoonflower fabric swatch and at 300 dpi I have more options for adjusting the scale of my design. 

Screenshot of how to create a new canvas in Procreate. Some of Anda’s colorful designs are to the left and a menu of New Canvas options are listed along the screen’s righthand side. Anda is selecting the 8” x 8” swatch option.
Selecting a New Canvas that’s a Swatch size and 8” x 8”.
Screenshot of selecting and reviewing her new Procreate canvas’s dimensions as 8” x 8”, with a dpi of 300.
Reviewing the new canvas dimensions and setting the dpi to 300.

2. Draw within the canvas.

To keep things simple, don’t let any of your work run off the sides—keep everything within the canvas borders. New to drawing or unsure what to add to your blank canvas? Your design can have patterns, abstract lines, shapes, whatever you want to try out. I changed the background to yellow, then drew these three tigers. 

Anda has drawn three friendly tigers into her new canvas. Two at the bottom and one dancing on top of them. They have been drawn over a yellow background.
After Anda has drawn three friendly tigers into a new canvas.

3. Create a new layer.  

Click the + sign on the layer panel to create a new layer. Select a dark color in your color palette, then tap the new layer in the layers panel. Choose Fill Layer to fill the new layer completely with color (I used black).  

Anda has drawn three friendly tigers into her new canvas. Two at the bottom and one dancing on top of them. They have been drawn over a yellow background. She has selected a new Layer to create from the menu at the top right of the screen. One layer already created is the yellow background, another layer is the tigers.
Adding a new layer to your canvas.

4. Create a New Group.  

With the color-filled layer selected, choose Opacity in the tools panel (or two-finger tap that layer) and drag the bar to the middle somewhere, around 50%. Then open the Layers panel again and swipe right to select each layer. Now tap Group to group them or select Combine Down. They will be combined into a group called New Group.  

Three friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. Two tigers are at the bottom and one tiger is dancing on top of them. The Opacity tool has been selected and is being changed to 52%.
Adjusting the Opacity of the design.
Three friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. Two tigers are at the bottom and one tiger is dancing on top of them. Anda has selected the Combine Down option for her new canvas Layer.
Selecting the Combine Down option for the new canvas layer.

5. Create a second New Group. 

Swipe left on this group and choose Duplicate. This will create a second New Group. 

Three friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. Two tigers are at the bottom and one tiger is dancing on top of them.
Swiping left to find the Duplicate option.
Three friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. Two tigers are at the bottom and one tiger is dancing on top of them.
A New Group appears after choosing Duplicate.

6. Use the Snapping tool. 

With one of the groups selected in Layers, click Transform at the top left (arrow icon). Click Snapping at the bottom left. Turn Snapping ON, then enter 25 for Distance and 5 for Velocity. Tap and hold the selection on your screen and drag the entire selected image to the left until it is halfway off the canvas. You can tell it is halfway and properly snapping in place because orange guides will appear. Release the selection when you see the orange guides. 

Three friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. Two tigers are at the bottom and one tiger is dancing on top of them. The Snapping tool has been selected and turned on.
Selecting the Snapping tool and turning it on.
Two friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. One tiger is at the bottom right and a tiger is dancing on top of it. Anda has selected the right half of the design with three tigers and copied that section to the left-hand side of the canvas, temporarily obscuring the third tiger.
Copying the right-hand side of the design to the left-hand side of the canvas, temporarily obscuring the third tiger.

7. Drag your design to where you want it to go. 

Select the second group in the Layers panel, click Transform again, and in the same way, drag the image to the right side of the screen. Look for the orange guides and release. It should snap right into place! 

Two friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. One tiger is at the bottom right and a tiger is dancing on top of it. This grouping of the two tigers appears on the right and left-hand side of the canvas. Anda has selected the second group of her drawing in the Layers panel.
Selecting the second group of the drawing in the Layers panel.
Two friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. One tiger is at the bottom right and a tiger is dancing on top of it. Anda has selected the left half of the design with two tigers and has dragged that section to the right-hand side of the canvas. The third tiger appears again, this time in the bottom right, with the tail of the top tiger appearing at the top right. A blue vertical line appears in the middle of the screen, along with a yellow arrow pointing to the right.
After dragging the selection to the right-hand side of the canvas.

8. Check your work.  

If you see a grey line in the center of your canvas, you haven’t moved the second layer far enough to the edge. You can select it again and tap the right side of the screen (off the canvas) to move the image one pixel at a time. Or— and this is what I do because I am impatient—you can click Undo and just move it again. Pinch zoom in and check that there are no lines at the top or the bottom of the canvas, where the background color is visible. If there are, you need to Undo and try it again.  

A dancing orange tiger with its hands in the air appears on the left-hand side of the canvas. A gray line is in the middle of the screen, with a pink x place on top of it.
Seeing a gray line at this point indicates you haven’t moved the second layer over far enough.
A pink x has been placed on top of the bright yellow top edge of the canvas.
Also at this point, there should be no original background visible.

9.  Delete the Opacity layers and merge remaining layers.  

Open the Layers panel and delete the two 50% opacity layers and merge the two remaining layers that make up your drawing.  

Three friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. Two tigers are at the bottom and one tiger is dancing on top of them. One of the design’s Opacity layers is being deleted.
Deleting one of the two Opacity layers.

10. Add additional elements to your designs.  

Draw in the center of your canvas, but don’t draw off any of the edges of the canvas.  

Five friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. One tiger is at each corner of the design and a smaller tiger has been drawn in the middle of the canvas.
After adding a smaller tiger to the design.

11. Repeat steps 4-9 with your new additional details.  

After you’ve added more details, repeat steps 4-9, but this time drag the groups to the top or bottom of the canvas. As you draw more or move around elements of your artwork, always stay within the borders of your canvas. Important: don’t adjust or move any design elements that are now running off the edges.  

Friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. The design has yellow horizontal and vertical lines that meet in the middle. The top half of the design has been selected by Anda and is now highlighted in gray.
After adding the additional tiger, Anda repeats steps 4-9, this time moving the group down vs. to the side.
Friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. The design has yellow horizontal and vertical lines that meet in the middle.
After moving the group down.

12. Want more details? They can still be added!  

You can repeat these steps over and over and over! In this case, I decided to add some little grass motifs to my image so I repeated steps 4-9 a third time.  

Anda has added small patches of green grass to the middle of the design.  
After repeating steps 4-9, the small patches appear throughout the design. 

13. Save your design. 

Once you are happy with your design, go ahead and just upload it from your device! Click Share in the tool panel and select JPG. Save locally to your Images folder.  

Friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. They are walking, playing and dancing amid small patches of green grass. Anda is selecting to save her design as a .jpg file.
Selecting to save her design as a .jpg file.

14. Recheck your work before uploading to Spoonflower.  

At this point, I like to check my repeat to make sure it tiles the way I like and has no hidden mistakes. For this, you can use any app that lets you create a repeating pattern of images. I use Layout from Instagram. Open Layout, select your design and choose the 4- or 16-square repeats. Save it and head over to your Photo Library to look closely at the repeat and check for problems.  

Friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. They are walking, playing and dancing amid small patches of green grass. Anda is double checking that her design repeats like she wants using the app Layout from Instagram. The design repeats 9 times, 3 times down and 3 times across in a large grid. The top left-hand corner has been selected and outlined in blue.
Double checking her design repeats like she wants using the app Layout from Instagram.
Friendly tigers have been drawn onto a Procreate canvas with a yellow background. They are walking, playing and dancing amid small patches of green grass.
The design repeating across the iPad.

15. Upload your design to Spoonflower. 

Looks good? Now you can open Spoonflower in your device’s browser and upload your image straight from your iPad! Choose Photo Library to grab it. Important: since this is a seamless repeat, you need to select Basic Repeat on the Edit Fabric page. Need a little more help? Check out the Designing & Uploading article in the Spoonflower Help Center.

Screenshot of the Upload Your Designs on Spoonflower, where artists can upload their designs to the site. Anda has selected the image of the design to be uploaded from her iPad’s photo library. The Photo Library option has been highlighted in a yellow circle.
Selecting the image of the design to be uploaded from her iPad’s photo library.
After selecting the image to be uploaded to Spoonflower, Anda then selects the Basic Repeat option, which has been highlighted in a yellow circle. The design uploaded features friendly tigers on a yellow background who are walking, playing and dancing amid small patches of green grass.
Selecting the Basic Repeat option for her design.

All done! Here’s my finished design as a mock up on a children’s jumper.

A render of Anda’s design on a children’s top. The design uploaded features friendly tigers on a yellow background who are walking, playing and dancing amid small patches of green grass.
A render of Anda’s design on a children’s top.

To give you more of an idea of what designs using these steps look like, here are two additional designs I made on my iPad using this technique: 

Drawing apps are a fun and inexpensive way to get super addicted to surface design. I love seeing others’ work on Instagram, so be sure to tag me @andacorrie if you design something using this technique!  

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I download Procreate?
You can download Procreate for your iPad and your iPhone on the Procreate website.
Do I have to have either an iPhone or iPad to use Procreate? 
Yes. However, you can learn about other design programs, which you can use on other devices, in the Spoonflower Help Center article “Design Programs and Resources.”
Where can I find other Spoonflower Procreate tutorials? 
You can find them at this link.
Where can I find your other design tutorials for other programs? 
Check out all our design tutorials here.

Want to Learn More Surface Design Skills? 

Check out our design tutorials by industry professionals as well as Spoonflower artists and employees. 
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