Does mastering the art of seamless repeats feel like the pinnacle of your surface design journey? We’ve got a not-so-secret truth to tell you—they’re easier than you might think! Spoonflower designer Anda Corrie is demystifying seamless repeats using the budget-friendly (just $9.99!) design tool, Procreate®, and her trusty iPad. With her helpful tutorial, you’ll be able to design fabric, wallpaper and even your own custom bedding in no time.
Looking for even more Procreate tutorials? Don’t miss Jennifer Nichols step-by-step instructions on how to create a seamless repeat in Procreate.
Anda: Ever since I discovered the drawing app Procreate (an iPad exclusive) last year, I have been designing fabric almost entirely digitally. In fact, I have been designing fabric 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 mug).
But, like most everyone creating fabric on their iPads while sitting on their sofas, I struggled to create repeating patterns without errors. The app I used had no easy tool for offsetting a design like I was used to. Up until last February I was using a very precise method I like to call “eyeballing it” — but as you can probably guess, all my finished fabric had pixel lines and I was wasting a ton of time.
Finally I decided someone out there must have figured out a solution and so I started searching, eventually uncovering a video tutorial, which promptly changed my life. Because of this wizard of a human—abbieuproot on Spoonflower—now we can all design flawless repeats on our iPads and remain cozily ensconced in a throw blanket until our legs atrophy. Inspired by her video, I’ve written an explanation with screenshots for you here. Enjoy!
How to Create a Seamless Repeat with Procreate
1. Create a new canvas. I almost always work in an 8×8” square at 300dpi when designing on the iPad. I like this size because 8×8” is the size of a Spoonflower swatch, but at 300dpi I have more options for adjusting the scale of my design.
Important note! When you upload a design, it’s converted to 150 dpi which can cause some unexpected changes in scale. You can use the Smaller/Bigger buttons or enter in a specific dpi by clicking on the “Change DPI” link on your design page. Once you make an adjustment, don’t forget to click on “Save this Layout” to make the change stick.
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.
3. 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).
4. With the color-filled layer selected, choose Opacity in the tools panel and drag the bar to the middle, somewhere around 50%.
5. Next, select Combine Down from the layers panel. The two layers will be combined into a group called, well, New Group. Swipe left on this group and choose Duplicate. This will create a second New Group.
6. With one of the groups selected, click the arrow button to select the entire panel. Making sure Magnetic is highlighted at the bottom, drag the group about halfway down the screen. You need Magnetic on so the sides snap in place — you don’t want the drawing falling off the left or right side.
7. Select the second group and drag it up. The sides will snap to the left or right but you will see a darker line where the two 50% opacity panels overlap — this is the magic! Tap the screen directly above the drawing to nudge the panel pixel by pixel until the line vanishes and you see only grey. Double check that there aren’t any white lines to the left or right of either image.
8. Now, you can then delete the 50% opacity layers and merge the two remaining layers that make up your drawing. Draw in the white space, but don’t draw off any of the edges of the canvas.
9. Repeat steps 3-8, but this time drag the groups to the left or right. Draw as much as you like in the empty spaces.
10. 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.
11. From here, you can open Spoonflower in your device’s browser and upload your image.
All done! See how easy? Here are some more designs I made completely digitally.
Design Your Own Bedding with Procreate
If you’ve ever dreamed of owning bedding in your own design, you’re in luck! Using Anda’s tutorial and these top tips for designing bedding (hint: go big), the bedding of your dreams is just a few steps away.
Drawing apps are a fun and inexpensive way to get super addicted to surface design, but you can also achieve seamless repeats with paper! I love seeing others’ work on Instagram, so comment @andacorrie if you design something using this technique!
If you loved the playful designs Anda featured in this tutorial, wait until you see what else she’s got on fabric, wallpaper and home decor in her Spoonflower shop!
Pin it for later!
About the Guest Blogger
Anda Lewis Corrie is an illustrator, designer and artist living in Berlin with her little family. She likes sharing ideas, seasonal cocktails, drawing on every surface that can be drawn on, and she takes too many vacations.
Thanks, Anda (and Spoonflower!) That’s a brilliant way to do a seamless repeat! Now I have to convince my hubby that we need a newer iPad… ;o)
Thanks for share Anda!
Thank you so much Anda! This is very useful method. You resolved the mystery of creating repeats on iPad!!!
Hi Nelli,
We’re so glad you found Anda’s tutorial helpful! Designing from your couch has never been easier thanks to Procreate!
-Meredith from Spoonflower
I sooo appreciate you taking the time to produce this feature…I knowww how much time and work it takest to create!! And to share what you learned by building on (and giving credit to) other’s who helped you is huge.
Thank you for making my new Spoonflower experience even more enjoyable while creating!
Sincerely Grateful!!
This worked great for me! Thanks so much
This was such a helpful tutorial. I too have been eyeballing my designs done on Procreate, and now my designs should have a better flow. Thanks!
Hi, Susan– Just took a look at this and realized I already have the app! Now to make a drawing worth repeating!!! Nancy
If I could, I’d kiss you 😘 Thank you so much for this, and no need for another app. Brilliant.
Thank you!!!
I am ok up until step 8. “merge the two remaining layers”
How?
Me too!!! I need more guidance on that final step! HELP!
Open layer menu on right side and with two fingers pinch the layers together
Or it seems to work to merge the two patterns.
Thanks for the tutorial! I am thinking about going digital! What kind of stylus do you have?
Hi Mary,
Anda is using the Apple Pencil!
Can this be used with detailed designs uploaded on the iPad and not drawn on the iPad with the Apple Pencil?
Hi Patricia,
While we haven’t given this technique a try, we think it might be something that could work!
Brilliant tutorial! Thanks for sharing. Can’t wait to put this into practice 🙂 x
Thanks for the tutorial. I have been practicing , but sometimes the seems don’t align properly. But I will keep practicing. I love it. Thanks.
Same here… There is always a thin gray line between the two layers. I find it hard (impossible for now!) to stick the two layers side by side without overlay them… I guess we have to practice more! 🙂
I love this!! Thank you.
Awesome, this is very useful!
I can not thank you enough!
I have tried,and it worked…..But I keep leaving a line?
every time I pick up apple Pencil… It moves a bit!
Do you or anyone have a tip” to stop the tip of apple pencil/or my finger from tipping the designs placement?
I have even tried/ moving in one swoop/to the circle,in blue guide line into that other dot…which seems”
Is where the Two Halfs should meet?
peace,
linda ann
(I have a learning problem, words are not my forte) This is why
i do stuff so upsidedown. Plus if you have a peek-my website is Wonky, I shall update it soon.
I can hand draw till tomorrow is gone! ..I have 30+ sketch books filled bact to front of my Free style creations.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Oh my god, thank you! I could cry.
Hi Anda,
Thanks a lot for sharing. It is already very helpfull. And I just tried it. Only there are white lines appearing. They are on the sides in procreate and if I make a jpg then the white lines are visible in the design.
Do you have a tip for that?
Thanks a lot.
Warm regards, marjolein
Although I found this to be useful, I find the magnetic tool to not work much at all. Also, the dashed line around the selected layer makes it impossible to see if the two layers are overlapping or have a gap, when it is very thin. If I zoom in to see closer, I can’t access the top to nudge it. Thus, I have mixed feelings about the Procreate app and it’s usefulness for my design work.
Absolutely brilliant!! Now I feel like *I CAN DO THIS*…
Vielen Dank!
How do I save the pattern on spoonflower if I just want the pattern? This was a super helpful tutorial!
Hi Chloe,
We’re happy to hear you found this tutorial helpful! When you upload the design to Spoonflower when you’re logged into your Spoonflower account, it’ll automatically save as your specific repeat in your account. If you download the original file once you’ve uploaded to Spoonflower, it’ll be the same file that you uploaded to your account. I hope that helps, but if you have any more questions don’t hesitate to ask!
You are a lifesaver! thank you for creating and sharing this!
Dear Anda,
Thank you for this very helpful tutorial!
I thought that to upload to spoonflower one had to vectorize ones work first, with Adobe Illustrator for exemple.
Maybe i missed something…
Hi Ana,
As long as your file is saved as a JPG or PNG and under 40 mb, we can print it for you!
Great tutorial! But until I can get a new iPad, is there a design site to use from my laptop? (without Illustrator or Photoshop)Thank you!
Hi Michelle,
We recommend taking a look at the free design program GIMP!
I am going to try this seamless repeat when I get a chance this week hopefully I will let you know how I got on xx
Which iPad do you have, I’m in the market.
Love the class
Thanks
could you please provide the link to the video tut you found? I would like to watch it.
Hi Fredrik,
You can find Abbie’s tutorial here!
Hi Anda, this is super cool… thanks
These instructions worked beautifully, and I\’m happy with my design. After I used Procreate, I exported the design to Photoshop Elements, in PSD format, and air dropped it to my MacBook Pro. (Photoshop Elements is a one-time purchase ($99), unlike the other Adobe products that require a subscription). From Elements I was able to make a big canvas and paste my design over and over to see how the squares fit together, and then tweaked the design to improve the composition. As with Procreate, it just takes a bit of patience to nudge pixel by pixel to make sure there\’s no overlap or gap.
I could not do the 7th step. How do we do it?
Hi Bashak,
We’re sorry to hear you had trouble with step 7. Are you able to provide more details about the issue you experienced so we can assist you further?
This is such a cool tutorial, but I’m having some trouble with a tiny border that always shows up in my tiles. I always have to finish it in PS because of that border, I send it to PS, crop the tile to get rid of the border and then it is ready to go, but it doesn’t matter how much I try, I always have that border (It’s not noticeable unless I zoom in a bunch, but it does show up as a hairline when I test the pattern in Pixelmator or PS). You can actually see it on Anda’s images in this tutorial, a tiny white border around the tile. I thought it was a “mirage” and it wouldn’t show on the saved image, but in my case it always does, creating a hairline on the repeat pattern. Any ideas?
Hi Carolina,
We’re glad to hear you enjoyed the tutorial! Procreate recently released an update that makes aligning tiles even easier! During step 7, click on the Snapping icon in the bottom menu (the one that pops up when you’re transforming the layer) and make sure that you have both Magnetics and Snapping turned on. This should help with snapping everything correctly and avoiding that pesky pixel line. I hope that helps, but let us know if you have any other questions.
Take care,
Amy
Spoonflower
Hi there great instructions by the way! I just have one question is a 64gb iPad Air enough to do this type of work or do I need an iPad Pro?
Hi Briar,
We recommend reviewing Procreate’s website to find more information regarding suitable iPads but in our research online we found that all iPads released after 2015 are compatible with the latest version of the Procreate app. The models that are NOT compatible with the latest version of Procreate include: iPad 1 to 4, iPad Mini 1 to 3, and iPad Air 1.
Hi thanks for the tutorial. Having created a tile image of a repeating pattern, how in Procreate do you actually fill a layer or selection area with the repeating pattern?
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your question. The easiest way to do this would be to export it and bring it into Illustrator to create a pattern fill. But to do it all in Procreate we would recommend first turning on guides—under the Wrench icon at the top, go to Canvas and turn on Drawing Guide. Then tap, Edit Drawing Guide right underneath. In the toolbar the pops up drag the slider for Grid Size all the way to the right so it’s on Max (the guides should divide your canvas into 4 sections) then tap Done. Next, in the layers panel duplicate your final tile layer and turn off any other layers. With your newly duplicated tile layer selected, scale it down using the Cursor icon in the top menu bar (in the bottom toolbar that pops up, make sure Snapping is on and Magnetics and Snapping are also on under the settings). Start dragging from one of the corners to make your tile smaller until it fits into one of the quadrants. With Snapping turned on your tile should snap to fit more easily as you get closer to your guides. Once it’s resized, tap the Cursor icon again to finalize the transformation. Then go back into your layers panel and duplicate the tile layer we just scaled-down and move it to one of the empty quadrants. Repeat this process of duplicating and moving the layers until all 4 quadrants have been filled. If you want, you can merge the visible layers at that point. If you want to keep scaling your pattern down even more, continue duplicating, scaling down and merging, until you get a better sense of how the pattern looks.
We hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Take care,
Amy
Spoonflower
Such a wonderful tutorial! Really helped to teach me how to create a seamless pattern.
It looks great in procreate, but when I uploaded the design to spoonflower you can see the splices in the pattern.
Any advice? Mahalo in advance
Hi Kui,
Thank you for the feedback! Whenever you’re moving elements in Procreate make sure that both snapping and magnetics are turned on to prevent accidentally nudging something a pixel or two too far. Make sure to zoom in around the edges and check that there aren’t any blank pixels where there shouldn’t be. You could also try testing your pattern tile in Procreate before exporting and uploading it to Spoonflower. Start by duplicating your final pattern a few times, transform it to make it smaller, and tile it to check that it’s repeating the way you want it to. Be sure to zoom in at the points where it’s meeting the other tiles and check that there are no pixel lines. Additionally, our preview screen can sometimes have a little bit of trouble displaying very intricate images. Try double-checking by viewing your design on All Products and look at the fabric section to see if that view looks correct.
I hope that helps, but please let me know if you have any additional questions.
Best,
Amy
Spoonfloewr
These directions no longer seem accurate. In fact I can’t finish the process because of the changes. What other programs can do pattern repeats. I’m not impressed with the lack of training for this program.
Hi Chris,
Sorry for the confusion! We have recently posted another Procreate tutorial that you may find helpful here. I hope that helps, but please let us know if you have any further questions.
Take care,
Amy
Spoonflower