Web App · Embroidery · Solo

Stitch My Signature

A free web app that turns a handwritten signature into a file an embroidery machine can sew. Designed, built and shipped alone. Runs in the browser with nothing uploaded.

7 Stitch-outs before the satin held its shape

6 Machine formats from one picker

2026

A circular maze in white running stitch on indigo cotton, still in the hoop under the machine's light

The problem

Quilters sign their work with a label on the back. Many want their own handwriting on that label. Getting handwriting onto fabric by machine means digitizing it first. Software starts at a thousand dollars and a service costs ten to thirty dollars a design. The people who want it most are often older and on an iPad.

My job was to make that one job free, fast and safe to do on a phone.

Role and team

Solo. I designed and built the app, tested it on my own machines and ran the beta with quilters from a Facebook group I started. Claude Code wrote code alongside me.

What it does

Sign with your finger, snap a photo of a signature on paper, or type a name.
The app traces the handwriting and turns the line into stitches.
A print-at-actual-size PDF shows the stitches before you commit thread.
Everything runs in the browser. Nothing uploaded.

The Stitch My Signature app, the word Hello with three exclamation marks inside a wavy frame of hearts, with the layers panel on the left and the design tools on the right — The app. Layers on the left and the design tools on the right. The stitch preview in the middle.

A quilt label in the app, the words Made with love in ink navy, the signature Betty Rose in wine with its selection box, and Spring 2026 beneath — A quilt label in the app. Made with love, a signature and the date. Each in its own thread color.

The same label as the machine will sew it, Made with love and the signature in satin stitch, Spring 2026 in hand stitch — The same label as the machine will sew it. Satin stitch for the words and the signature. Hand stitch for the date.

Getting a signature to stitch

The first file I sent to a machine was my own signature. It came back as a knot.

Three numbered tries on white cotton in green thread, the first a dense tangle of satin stitch, the second a row of loops over a straight underlay, the third a plain running stitch you can read — Tries one to three. Satin stitch filled the loops solid and the underlay lost the letters. A plain running stitch was the first one you could read.

Try one was satin stitch straight off the trace and the small loops filled in solid. Try three was a plain running stitch and the first one you could read. Follow the handwriting first. Earn the satin back later.

Two later tries in green satin stitch on white felt, labelled Try 4 and Try 7 in pen, with an arrow on the fabric pointing at the last loop — Tries four and seven. The satin holds its shape now. The arrow points at the one loop that still closed up.

By try seven the satin held its shape. The last loop still closed up because small letters need a finer stitch than capitals. The app now warns when small letters will come out too thick.

The same signature, Grandma Rose, rendered six ways at three inches, satin, a single running pass, and bean stitch at four spacings, with the stitch counts for each and circles around the loops that fill in and the bridges that show — One signature in six stitch styles at three inches with the stitch count for each. The circles mark the loops that fill in and the bridges that show.

The hard parts

Photos of paper. Shadows, paper texture, printed rules and bleeding ink. The pipeline flattens the lighting and erases the printed lines without erasing the letters.
Six formats, one plan. Every machine format is written from the same stitch plan and checked on a Brother, a Janome, a Pfaff and a Bernina.
Nothing from anyone else. No third-party script, no font and no analytics. Guard scripts run on every push to hold that promise.

The 5 by 7 inch test sheet stitched on a Pfaff, satin and hand-stitch samples in dark thread on white quilting cotton — The 5 by 7 inch test sheet stitched on a Pfaff. Satin and hand-stitch samples in dark thread on quilting cotton.

Designing for the audience

Quilters are often older and low-vision and usually on an iPad.

Big touch targets.
Inches first and millimeters second.
No file-format jargon. Pick your machine and the app picks the format.
A PDF at actual size to hold against the fabric.

Design decision

Your machine decides your file and your hoop. Picking the machine is step three, before size.

Outcome

Live and free at stitchmysignature.com at Beta 0.51.
Six machine formats from one picker. Four stitched on real machines.
Designs save on the device. No accounts.

Where it’s going

The stitch engine works on any line. The cover is a generated maze stitched as one running line. Frames, borders and line art are next.

What I took from it

Designing and building the same thing is a different job from designing it and handing it off. Every “it should just” became a Saturday.
A promise written as a test is a promise I don’t have to remember.
The knot on try one taught me more than the decoder that said the file was fine.