I’ve always been intrigued by patterns, especially those with neat drawings, but I never knew how to do them on the iPad; I’ve attempted free-handed repeating patterns digitally and on paper, but they usually came out wonky.

After picking up my iPad and following along with one of Lisa Bardot’s tutorials last night, I’m proud to say that I made my first three repeating patterns! These patterns are set up in a way that I can repeat their design without having continuity issues, so if I want to print these designs on fabric, I know they’ll look good!

Lisa has a handy repeating pattern feature on her website where you can upload your design, and it shows you how your design will repeat. This helps you determine gaps in your design and where more detail can be added.

My patterns deviated from the tutorial with every design Lisa gave instructions for. I made flowers for the first pattern, suns for the second (which were supposed to be polka dots), and ingredients for the third (which were supposed to be bananas). I’m proud that I felt free enough to make my own designs and let myself play.

Of the patterns that I created, my favorite pattern is the one with ingredients. I call it “Gravy” since it was inspired by the gravy I made last night for our chicken pot pie. I think it would be a neat design for Thanksgiving (*wink wink*).