Can You Turn a Machine Embroidery Design Into a Coloring Page?

Yes. A machine embroidery design with open, lightly stitched areas can become a coloring page once it's stitched, because the stitched lines act as the outline and you fill in the color afterward with markers, acrylic paint pens, or watercolor pencils. Sketch-style Halloween designs are a natural fit, since jack-o'-lanterns, bats, and ghosts leave plenty of open space for color. A single-color design is a quick stitch-out, friend, and the coloring is where you decide whether the finished piece stays bold, soft, or somewhere in between.

Stitch a spooky silhouette on a kitchen towel and you already have a perfectly good Halloween decoration. Add a little color and it becomes something else entirely. When the stitching is light and the shapes are open, the finished piece is basically a coloring page made of thread, and you can stop at the stitch-out or keep going with a handful of art supplies.

Why a sketch-style design works for this

Designs stitched in a sketch style leave the fabric visible between the lines. A satin-filled design covers its own shapes, so there's little to color. A sketch design gives you open areas to fill, and the stitched lines hold your color in place the way the black outline does on a coloring book page.

Jacki, who demonstrated this on 3 Things Live, stitched a single-color design from the Spooky Silhouettes set and noted it takes about 20 minutes to stitch out. The set's grinning jack-o'-lantern, sweetly spooky ghost, bats, crescent moon, and leafy details give you plenty of spots to color. That leaves most of the project time for the fun part.

Before you pick up a marker

Stitch the design first, then color it. Leave the stabilizer on the back while you work, since it can catch any color that bleeds through. And test every product on a scrap of the same fabric before touching the real project. Fabrics take color differently, and a scrap tells you how far a marker or a wet brush will spread before you find out on the finished piece.

Option 1: Regular permanent markers

Plain store-bought Sharpies are the simplest place to start, and the full color range is hard to resist. Color like you would in a coloring book, but stay slightly inside the stitched lines. Permanent ink can spread into the fibers, and starting just inside the outline gives it room to bleed without crossing over.

Option 2: Acrylic paint markers

Water-based acrylic paint markers lay down opaque color, so they show up on dark and light fabric alike. Jackie used a brush-tip set and shaded her leaves with a darker color toward the center and a lighter one toward the edges. The stitches stay visible through the color, so the design keeps its sketched look.

These markers are made for many surfaces rather than for fabric specifically, which makes the scrap test especially worthwhile. If you want a marker made for fabric, fabric markers are sold for exactly that purpose.

Option 3: Watercolor pencils and a water brush

Watercolor pencils start out like any colored pencil. Color the area, then go over it with a water brush or watercolor brush pen, and the pigment turns bright and fluid. This option bleeds the most, so it's the one to use if you want soft shading or a little shadowing at the edges. Less water gives you more control. Follow the pencil maker's directions for setting the color on fabric before you launder the piece.

A ready-to-color project for fall afternoons

Because the stitching only takes one color and one sitting, you can stitch a handful of designs ahead of time and hand them over for coloring. Jackie plans to bring pre-stitched designs along to color with her kids on their usual fall outing. It's an easy way to let someone else make their mark on a project, and each finished piece comes out different.

Want to color the same design from the video? Spooky Silhouettes includes three one-step designs (Happy Halloween, Boo, and Trick or Treat), each sized for 5x7 and 6x10 hoops and stitched in a single color.

See It in Action

Watching Jacki color her stitched design shows how much each product spreads and how the colors look once they're layered. Check out the full demonstration here:

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you color machine embroidery with markers?
Yes. Permanent markers, acrylic paint markers, and watercolor pencils can all be used on stitched designs. Test on a scrap of the same fabric first, since each fabric takes color a little differently.

What kind of embroidery design is best for coloring?
A sketch-style design with open areas and lightly stitched outlines works best. Densely filled designs cover most of the fabric with thread, so there's less space to color.

Which embroidery designs are good for coloring?
Single-color, sketch-style designs with open shapes, like the jack-o'-lanterns, bats, and ghost in the Spooky Silhouettes set, leave plenty of room for color.

Will the color bleed?
It can, depending on the product and the fabric. Coloring slightly inside the stitched lines, leaving the stabilizer on the back, and testing on a scrap all help. With watercolor pencils, using less water gives you more control over how far the color spreads.

Do I color the design before or after stitching it?
After. Stitch the design first, then add color to the stitched piece with the stabilizer still on the back.

Do I need to set the color so it doesn't wash out?
It depends on the product, so follow the manufacturer's setting directions and test a scrap before laundering the finished piece.