Affinity Designer - Wrapping Straight Stitching/String Around a Shape/Curve

Angela Toucan

I keep looking for THAT wardrobe
Pollywog
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Nov 6, 2017
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When I created this layout, I took a straight stitching element from Gina Miller's kit and shaped it to a curve for the bottom title piece.


In this Affinity Designer tutorial I'm going to show you how to take a straight piece of stitching or string or thin ribbon etc from a kit and bend it around a shape or along a curve.

For this tutorial I am going to use a length of stitching from A Stitch in Time: Lengths by Lynn Grieveson.
lgrieveson_stitchintime_lengths-preview.jpg

I am also going to use a piece of string from Spell It! Plastic Beads by Kim Jensen.
KimJensen_SpellIt_previewV2.jpg


First we need to turn the length of stitching/string into an image brush. I like to have a special temporary category that is for these image brushes. I can delete the brushes later when I've finished with them, or leave my favourites for future use.

To create a new brushes category
  • open the brushes tab
  • click on the 3 horizontal lines in the right hand corner of the tab to open the drop down menu
  • Select Create New Category
DesignStitch1.jpg


To create an image brush
  • open the brushes tab - choose your category. Mine is called FromKits
  • click on the 3 horizontal lines in the right hand corner of the tab to open the drop down menu
  • Select New Textured Image Brush
  • Use the diaglog to locate the stitching/string element
DesignStitch2.jpg


To wrap a row of stitching around a shape
I'm using the element lgrieveson_stitch_in_time-6.png from A Stitch in Time: Lengths by Lynn Grieveson.
  1. Draw your shape (I chose to draw an ellipse)
  2. Select your image brush
  3. Adjust the stroke width
DesignStitch3.jpg


Here I have placed the original element on the page for comparison.
DesignStitch4.jpg


To add a length of string to a curve.
I'm using the element KimJensen_SpellIt_braid-bluegreen.png from Spell It! Plastic Beads by Kim Jensen.
  1. Draw your curve (I chose to draw a simple curve)
  2. Select your image brush
  3. Adjust the stroke width
  4. Ensure that the line fill colour is empty.
DesignStitch5.jpg

If there is a colour selected, then it will apply it to your curve.
DesignStitch6.jpg


For more on creating custom shapes see: Affinity Designer - Using Custom Shapes
For details on drawing curves see: Affinity Tutorial - text on a Path
 
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