How To Spot AI Embroidery Patterns On Etsy

A screen shot of several Etsy listing, with "A,I" or "NOT A.I" written over the listing thumbnails in red letters

"I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes".
-Writer Joanna Maciejewska

Check the description

Etsy unfortunately allows AI, as long as an item is disclosed as such, which they do by hiding it at the bottom of the description. And they all do it the same way.They say they used an AI generator along with their embroidery experience/expertise. They always say they drew the template in their little/crafty/other adjective studio. And they will always say the reference photo is just for "inspiration".A lot of shops don't disclose that it's AI (which Etsy doesn't enforce) so keep reading to learn the other ways to be able to tell if the pattern is AI.

"Template only"
In the description or in the photos, they'll say that only the "template" and photo are included, and that there isn't any instructions, stitch guides, or floss colors included. What's even the point of the pattern then? Just take a screenshot of it and use it, it's created with stolen artwork in the first place, and AI cannot be copyrighted

Shows an Etsy listing photo of the template for the AI embroidery pattern

Zoom in on the stitches

It'll look fine as a whole, but the closer you get the less it makes sense. Does any of this look right to you? The stem stitches (or are they back stitches?) aren't even, the stitches are blurring together in impossible ways, the stitches don't look like they're even going into the fabric, and the fabric doesn't have a weave. 

A screenshot of an AI embroidery to show how fake it looks.
A screenshot of an AI embroidery to show how fake it looks.

 

Often the fabric will look grainy, or like a crepe fabric, which is what you see here. Do you also notice how some of the leaves aren't even reaching the stem? Or how there's random little blob custers that make no sense. 

Zoom in on the hoop

AI still has a lot of trouble creating the hardware on hoops, so if you're unsure about the stitching, look at the hoop.

The screw on an embroidery hoop generated by AI

Look at the shop as a whole

None of the backgrounds match. This is all from a single shop, but there's no cohesion. That's because even the background is AI generated, and AI can't create the same thing twice.

An etsy shop of AI patterns, showing that none of the product backgrounds match

The have HUNDREDS of patterns. It takes actual embroidery artists weeks to create the design, decide on the colors, stitch it, photograph it, and write the instructions, just for 1 pattern. And it take SECONDS for an AI generator to churn out these images, so these shops are able to produce an ungodly amount of patterns. Because of the lack of actual effort, they're fine pricing it so low, which has trained customers to expect patterns for next to nothing. 

I've seen some shops with real patterns have bundles, but the majority of these pattern bundles are all AI. Another thing I noticed is that their items on constantly on sale, so that's another red flag to look for. 

An Etsy listing for a bundle of 600 AI embroidery patterns

Use an AI image detector

You can screenshot the image, or right click on it and open the image in a new tab, and get the url of that and upload it into an AI image detector. Not all of them are created equally, the only one I could find that worked best was wasitai.com

A screenshot of the results from an AI detector website. It shows that the uploaded photo is not created with AI.A screenshot of the results from an AI detector website. It shows that the uploaded photo is created with AI.

 

Green flags

Multiple photos with different angles
AI currently can't reproduce the same image, let alone reproduce the same design at a different angle. 

An upclose photo of an example embroidery that is not AI. It has "In my embroidery era" written in a script font with florals surrounding itAn upclose photo of an example embroidery that is not AI. It has "In my embroidery era" written in a script font with florals surrounding itAn upclose photo of an example embroidery that is not AI. It has "In my embroidery era" written in a script font with florals surrounding it

 

Check out my patterns if you'd like! I didn't use any AI to make them, and they come with a lot more than just a template! Check them out here!

Why should you care if the embroidery pattern is AI?

It's a scam
The photo that they show you of the finished piece isn't real, so you will never be able to recreate it. The stitches are fake and the colors might not even exist as embroidery floss. And unlike patterns created by humans, AI patterns only come with a "template" i.e. just the outline. It doesn't give you which stitches to use where, how many strands to use, and which colors to buy.

It's stolen art
Generative AI models "train" by looking at all photos of embroidery available on the internet. So without real embroidery artists sharing their creations, AI wouldn't be able to generate "new" ones. They stole our work to then directly compete against us. They can afford to price it way under ours, and they flood the market, drowning out the real artists.

It's killing our planet
Generative AI models take an incredible amount of power to work, much more than your typical computer. 

The figures were notably larger for image-generation models, which used on average 2.907 kWh per 1,000 inferences. As the paper notes, the average smartphone uses 0.012 kWh to charge — so generating one image using AI can use almost as much energy as charging your smartphone.
- The Vedge
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1 comment

This is SUCH good information, thank you for putting this together!

Ashley Uptegraft

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Sarah Noel
Owner
prettyrudethings.com

I do all of the things here