Where to find machine embroidery designs (free and paid)

You can get machine embroidery designs from your machine's built-in set, your maker's app, independent design shops, marketplaces with many sellers and free offers from shops. Built-in designs cost nothing extra, but every file you buy or download comes with a license that decides whether you may sell what you stitch. Before you buy, check three things: the file format your machine reads, the design size against your hoop's stitch area, and the license.

There are five places to get machine embroidery designs: the set built into your machine, your maker’s app, independent design shops, marketplaces with many sellers, and free offers from shops. The built-in set costs nothing extra. Everything else comes as a file with a license attached, and that license decides whether you can sell what you stitch.

Embroidery Library, Urban Threads, Kimberbell, OESD, Anita Goodesign and Brother are named below as examples of what people search for. This site is not affiliated with any of them, and the order is not a ranking.

Built-in designs are the place to start

Most home embroidery machines ship with a set of designs and fonts, so you can stitch on day one without a single file. Brother’s product pages list 138 built-in designs for the PE800 and 135 for the SE700. Counts vary by model, so look at your own manual or machine page.

The stitch area still limits you. The PE800 stitches up to 5 × 7 in (130 × 180 mm), while the SE700 stitches up to 4 × 4 in (100 × 100 mm). Built-in designs are a good way to practice hooping and stabilizer choices before you spend money on files.

Your maker’s app and library

Brother’s Artspira app, for iOS and Android, lets you browse, edit and wirelessly send designs to compatible Brother machines. According to Brother’s page, the free version includes 700+ licensed designs and lets you import up to 20 of your own. The paid Artspira+ plan adds a much bigger library across embroidery, cutting and printing. The same page also mentions embroidery designs that need a separate purchase, so do not assume everything is included.

Artspira works with the machines on Brother’s compatibility list, and each machine needs its latest update. The SE700 above is on that list, but the PE800 is not. Our Artspira guide covers setup. If you own a different brand, look on that maker’s own site for an app or design library.

Design shops

Independent shops sell designs as instant downloads, either one at a time or in collections, and many keep a free section. Here is what their own sites showed in October 2026.

Shop	What its site shows	Where to read the terms
Embroidery Library	Downloadable designs for Brother, Baby Lock, Janome, Bernina, Husqvarna Viking, Pfaff, Singer and more; a free section; tutorials	Licensing policy
Urban Threads	Its licensing page names the operator as Embroidery Library, Inc., doing business as Urban Threads; a free section	Licensing policy
Kimberbell	In-the-hoop projects, applique and fill designs, quilting backgrounds, subscriptions	Terms of service and its Angel Policy
OESD	Designs sorted by theme, technique and artist; thread and stabilizer; a members’ club	Licensing policy, plus the notice on each product page
Anita Goodesign	Collections, plus memberships with free design drops	Terms of service (covers downloads); ask the shop about selling items

A few habits save trouble.

Download and back up on purchase day. Anita Goodesign’s terms say a purchased set can be downloaded twice, and that a product may no longer be available to download once it is retired.
Look for a photo of the stitched design, not only a computer drawing. Check the listed size, the formats and the stitch count.
Pick a style that suits your projects. In-the-hoop projects and free-standing lace need designs made for those jobs, so search those terms rather than browsing everything.

Marketplaces

Large marketplaces such as Etsy host designs from many independent sellers. Sellers decide the file formats, the sizes included and the rules for use, so quality and licenses vary more than they do at a single shop. Read the full listing before you buy. If the listing does not say what use is allowed, ask the seller first.

Free designs, and the catches

Free designs come from three main places: the built-in set, the free tier of a maker’s app and the free sections of shops.

Embroidery Library describes how its freebie works. You add the month’s free design to your cart, check out with no payment, and download it from your order history. The free design changes often, so grab it while it is listed. Urban Threads works the same way and links to its licensing policy from the free page.

Free does not mean unrestricted. A free file is usually still someone’s copyrighted work, so read the license before you put it on something you plan to sell.

Be careful with free files from unknown sites and sharing groups. Shop licenses generally bar passing files on, so a file offered there may have been shared without the creator’s permission, and it may be poorly made. Brother also warns that using data types it does not list may cause its machines to malfunction.

Licensing: personal use versus selling what you make

When you buy a design you usually buy a license to stitch it, not ownership of the artwork. The terms differ from shop to shop. This table compares two policies we read in October 2026.

Question	Embroidery Library and Urban Threads	Kimberbell
Stitching for yourself	Yes, a lifetime license to embroider the design	Yes, files are licensed to the buyer for personal use
Selling finished items	Allowed at craft shows and fairs and through personal or peer-to-peer online sales; donating or gifting finished items is also allowed	Allowed on a limited basis under its Angel Policy, in boutiques, at craft fairs or online: you make the items yourself, with no paid workers, up to 200 items per design
Wholesale or mass production	Not allowed; contact the company	Mass production not allowed
Sharing or reselling the files	Not allowed, including gifting	Not allowed without the company’s written permission

Some other points from those policies and from OESD’s.

Embroidery Library and Urban Threads say a business or organization needs one license for each person who uses a design.
Both say you may edit a design, but the edited file stays under the shop’s copyright and the same limits.
Both limit designs to machine embroidery. Cutting files, tattoos and screen printing are not allowed.
OESD’s policy treats licensed artist collections differently from its other designs. Items from those collections have a cap on how many you may sell, and some collections may not be resold at all. Look for the artist’s name on the product page.
A shop license covers that shop’s own artwork. It may not cover a character or brand logo that belongs to someone else, so be careful before you sell items that carry one.

Policies change, so check the current page before you rely on it. This is general information, not legal advice. If you plan to sell regularly, our guide to starting an embroidery business covers the business side.

Check format, size and stitch limits before you buy

Find the formats your machine reads. Brother’s help page for many of its home embroidery models lists PES, DST, PHC and PEN, and your own model’s manual is the final word. Janome’s own format is JEF, which that Brother page does not list. Our file formats page explains each one, including PES, DST and JEF.
Prefer your machine’s native format. DST works on many machines, but it stores no thread colors, only color-change stops, so you set the colors yourself. If a shop does not sell your format, see our guide to converting embroidery files.
Compare the design size with your stitch area. Brother says a design must fit the machine’s field, and a machine asks whether to rotate a design that is too big. Rotating only helps if the design fits sideways. A 5 × 7 in design will not fit a 4 × 4 in machine, so look for a smaller size or a design that comes in several. Our hoop sizes overview lists the standard sizes, and the will-it-fit tool checks a design against a machine.
Mind the stitch and color limits. Brother says PES files over a machine’s stitch, color or combined-pattern limits will not display.
Name and store the file correctly. Use only letters, numbers, dashes and underscores, and save it in the root of the USB drive, not inside a folder. Our guide to transferring designs walks through the options.
Stitch a sample on scrap fabric first, with the stabilizer you plan to use, before you commit to the real garment.

A simple way to start

Stitch a few built-in designs. Try the free designs from your maker’s app and from one or two shops. Then buy single designs you actually plan to stitch before you consider a membership or a club, since those make sense only if you will stitch often. Keep the license page for each shop where you can find it, and your files backed up in more than one place.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I get free machine embroidery designs?

Start with the designs built into your machine, then try your maker's app, such as Brother's free Artspira version with 700+ licensed designs. Some shops also hand out a free design each month: Embroidery Library and Urban Threads both do, and you pick it up through a no-payment checkout. Read the license even on a free file.

Can I sell items I embroider with designs I bought?

It depends on the shop. Embroidery Library and Urban Threads allow sales at craft shows and fairs and through personal or peer-to-peer online sales, but not wholesale or mass production. Kimberbell allows limited sales if you make the items yourself, up to 200 per design. Always read the shop's license page.

Can I share an embroidery design file with a friend?

Usually not. The shops we read say files may not be shared, gifted, traded or resold, and that a friend who wants the design should buy their own license.

What file format do I need to download?

Download the format your machine reads. Brother's help page for many of its home embroidery models lists PES, DST, PHC and PEN, and PES is the usual choice for Brother. Janome's own format is JEF. Check your manual, because supported formats differ by maker and by model.

Why won't my downloaded design show up on my machine?

Brother's help page points to a design that is larger than the stitch area, more stitches or colors than the machine allows, special characters in the file name, or a file saved inside a folder instead of the root of the USB drive.