How to spot A.I. generated sewing and craft patterns & tutorials – with photo examples.

Generative A.I. has been around for a few years but has recently really taken off both in sophistication and popularity. You can’t search on Google without getting an A.I. overview, on Etsy without getting deceptive listings, or on Pinterest without getting fake photos. This has led to a lot of frustration for both creatives and content creators and I wanted to share some tips for spotting A.I.-generated photos and patterns so you can be more confident that you’ll buy or try something that’s actually been tested! I normally would never use someone else’s photos without their permission, however there is no copyright with A.I. generated photos so we’re in the clear.

I have many problems with generative A.I. (negative mental health effects/weakening social bonds, wasting water, making everyone dumber, increasing pollution and cancer rates)! However, my aim with this post is not to convince you to stop using chatgpt but to help you spot fake patterns and tutorials so you can avoid them.

This issue has felt rather personal over recent months, with my traffic falling almost in half due to overall reduced Pinterest traffic, content scraping, and A.I. overviews. Originally, it was a little funny to see the Google overview calling me Sarah Woodson (if you’re new here, my name is Stephanie!) when I was looking for one of my tutorials to link for someone.

If you like this post, check out some of my greatest hits, all A.I.-free, here:

• How to sew a stuffed animal – tips for sewing softies
• 15+ sweater refashions to recycle old sweaters into new clothes!
• How to mend a hole – 20+ creative inspiration & tutorials
• Tips for sewing ‘ransom note’ style from old tshirts

A few months later, it was not funny when I realized the A.I. overview for a similar but different set of keywords virtually spelled out my entire tutorial including naming a specific product I used. Even worse? It embeds two separate video tutorials… that have nothing to do with me! I have no idea if their tutorials are clear, good, or even related to my tutorial but if someone was looking for my tutorial it would be very easy to click on one of those and think they were connected (they also would then not ever come to my site!). This happens on several different posts I’ve tested, and sometimes the A.I. overview will use my photos and not even link to my site, but to another unrelated one.

Even more recently, I stumbled on a round-up style post by another blogger who had very obviously fed multiple of my posts into a generative A.I. website. She also had it regurgitate “instructions” without any photos or patterns, making it completely useless. She continues to pump out multiple round-up style posts of craft and sewing tutorial suggestions, which are 100% made up fake photos. Again, this harms every original maker who has their work stolen, remixed, and shared only to muddy the online waters and rake in ad revenue. These folks, like me, make money when people visit their posts and click on ads or supply affiliate links – they don’t care if it’s all garbage, they just want your money, and unfortunately that siphons off traffic to people, like me, who are actually designing, testing, and sharing things. It’s the worst!

I’ll lighten the mood with a photo that was actually funny – from a round up of “scrap fabric crafts” where the writing indicates that they *made* the baskets but the image generator instead made baskets for storing fabric scraps.

The flood of fake photos and tutorials is arguably worst for the folks trying to use them – wasting their time, energy, money, and materials trying to make something that is literally impossible or completely unrealistic.

I’ve seen multiple of this style of post in blogging circles; this particular person isn’t cranking out craft/sewing posts but I’m quite sure it’s rampant across all niches. 50 articles a week, all regurgitated, stolen content. It’s infuriating! Another unexpected side effect is false accusations if your art looks too perfect; @Sugarfox Art posted about how her art has been accused of being AI-generated and how its affecting her.

Here are a few general tips for spotting A.I.-generated sewing patterns, embroidery patterns, quilt patterns, then keep scrolling for some photo examples!:

• See above for some dead giveaways in photos from top  left in a clockwise fashion- Buttons with blurry or nonsense buttonholes, text that makes no sense, stitching that goes off the project or switches stitch style mid seam, and numbers that make no sense! Quilting lines that stop or start in unusual places are another red flag.
• A pattern or tutorial should have specific fabric suggestions that make sense as well as a specific amount (e.x. 2 yards). Taken from a fake Etsy pattern listing: “Medium-weight knit fabrics such as cotton, polyester blends, or jersey.” This is word salad! Avoid patterns like this.

• If the patterns are dirt cheap and sold in a large bundle, it’s usually A.I.
• If you see something on one site, look for a social media presence on other sites and social media. There are legitimate reasons to not have a profile on Facebook/Instagram, etc., but it is extremely unlikely for a company to be selling patterns solely on Etsy or Facebook without any website or social media.
• Check how long they’ve been open! Shop/page open for 1 year and dozens of patterns? Fake.
• If there are multiple, modeled photos all with unrealistically attractive model-looking people? Probably fake.

If you’re sick of A.I. images; you can leave comments on social media, warning other people that they’re fake. You can leave reviews, and take the extra time to seek out and support creators online who are committed to original, human-made graphics and art! 

Keep scrolling for some photo examples!

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How to spot A.I. generated sewing patterns & tutorials

First, an example of an obvious A.I. sewing pattern off Etsy. First immediate red flag is that the photo is clearly not a sweatshirt.

Next red flags are that the line drawing does not match the garment (it has bust darts, no ribbed neckline shown), the shirt has a small line of strange stitching, and cuffs that don’t show on the line drawing. Still, it looks relatively convincing, so let’s do some more investigating.

At first glance, reviews aren’t awful, but if you actually read the 5-star reviews, none of them have actually sewn anything. No example photos.

If you filter for the lowest reviews, you find much longer, more genuine sounding folks expressing their frustration with the pattern and responses after asking questions.

This is from a different listing, but demonstrates another tip, which is to click on a user and see if they’re copy/pasting the same review for multiple things in one shop. Huge red flag!

This tutorial was shared in an “inspiration carousel” on tiktok.

I double circled the immediate red flag – a hanger that was “attached” to another ornament; you can also see two spots where the fabric prints seem very off.

This fake tutorial on a fake blog somehow linked my legitimate dog bed sewing tutorial, probably because they copy/pasted it into an A.I. generator and forgot to remove it as a source. 

Unfortunately if you use their tutorial, you will end up with trash. Red flags include: sewing completely sideways in a way that makes no sense, distorted print on the fabric, very strange looking “stitching”, a typo, and a nonsense method of stuffing.

This style of a flat-lay pattern and the project that it makes is very popular on Facebook.

I think they’re probably all fake and once you’ve seen one, you’ll notice them all the time, however there are some clear red flags as well. Measurements that make no sense, random arrow segments, and a measurement that doesn’t correspond to anything. The numbers on the cutting board are mumbo jumbo, too.

This one is a shameless copy of my pocket kitty pattern, it’s really unsettling that the fake thumb even looks like mine!

However there are multiple, glaring inconsistencies including a disappearing background plank, whiskers that are somehow both black and white with one missing, a squished heart that’s not sewn on, and no visible stitching whatsoever on a large part of the body.

This person has created a ton of pretty tricky, beautiful images that are all over Pinterest and social media. It just had an A.I. look about it so I went to examine closer, noticing that the tassels weren’t all sewn into the inseam in a way that made sense.

But it was zooming in that was the dead giveaway, with all the binder clips completely misshapen.

Another sewing tutorial that immediately looks suspect given the yellow-ish tinge.

Red flags are uneven, mismatched stitching, binding that has no mitered edges or seam, doubled-up print on two squares, and “phantom” stitching lines that make no sense.

Another tricky image, this time of a quilted heart ornament.

The immediate tell is the mysterious quilting line that just disappears into a smooth curtain apart from the foreground, but the strange stitching lines that aren’t consistent throughout tell the whole story. Also, a bow that makes no sense hangs down from the top.

There are many, many A.I. generated quilts out there and I just grabbed the most recent one that had come across my feed.

Here we see a relatively straight sashing line at the top but it gets distorted towards the middle. Patchwork blocks don’t line up with seams, and I didn’t circle it but the right lower corner doesn’t fold or bend in a way that makes sense.

Another quilt example, this time from a foundation paper pieced pattern off Etsy.

Upon closer examination, you can see that the eyeball is too round to be FPP, there is an oddly colored patch underneath the wiskers, and quilting lines that make no sense mixed in throughout the quilt.

Here is a craft example off Pinterest.

However it’s easy to quickly notice that the scissors are melting, there is a random circle of twine like it is a craft supply, and both cans are not empty nor is there any decoupage liquid included in the tableau.

Lastly, another craft example with a cute little altoid tin organizer.

While I want to note that you can actually buy altoid tin dividers to make something similar, I also have to point out that there is an incredibly strange tape shape, nonsense text, wacky supplies in the tin, sequins without any holes in them, as well as mutant scissors.

I hope looking through multiple visual examples will help train your eyes to spot fake tutorials, please leave a comment if you think I’ve missed any important tips in how to avoid fake patterns! While I’m sure they will be undetectable someday, for now I encourage you to vet your patterns, tutorials, and support actual content creators who are sharing real work and inspiration instead of vultures who are copy/paste profiteering.