Have you noticed it yet? Scroll through embroidery social media lately and you'll start seeing it everywhere — garments and accessories covered edge to edge in small, scattered designs. Coffee cups. Boba tea. Hearts. Cowboy boots. A monogram tucked in somewhere for good measure. It's popping up on button-down shirts, tote bags, hats, and travel gear, and it has a name that says exactly what it is: "my favorite things" embroidery.
If you haven't tried it yet, this is your sign.
Wait — Isn't Embroidery Supposed to Be Perfectly Placed?
Here's what makes this trend so much fun: it breaks every rule we've spent years mastering.
As embroiderers, we're trained to measure twice, center precisely, and align everything just so. Every design gets carefully hooped, positioned, and placed with intention. That precision is a skill worth being proud of — but this trend asks you to set it aside completely.
With "my favorite things" embroidery, there's no measuring tape, no centering guide, and no perfect symmetry. You simply choose a handful of designs that represent things you love — a coffee cup, a boba tea, a heart, a cowboy boot, your dog, your favorite snack — and scatter them across a garment however feels right. Randomly. Intuitively. No rules.
It sounds like it shouldn't work. It absolutely does.
Why This Trend Works So Well
The random, scattered placement is exactly what gives these garments their charm. Instead of looking like a single centered logo, the finished piece tells a story — your story. Every design placed on the shirt is a little clue about who you are and what you love. Add a monogram somewhere in the mix, and the whole piece becomes a wearable, one-of-a-kind autobiography.
It's playful. It's personal. And it photographs beautifully.
Don't just take our word for it — search "all-over embroidery my favorite things" online and take a look at what's trending. You'll be inspired within seconds.
The Perfect Designs for This Technique: Minis
This is exactly the kind of project our mini design collection was made for. With over 150 mini designs in the Anita Goodesign library, you have an enormous head start — whatever your favorite things are, chances are we already have them ready to stitch. Coffee. Dogs. Boots. Solo cups. Hearts. Travel icons. Food. Drinks. The list goes on.
A few reasons minis are ideal for this trend:
- Small footprint, big impact. Their size makes it easy to scatter several across a garment without overwhelming the fabric or competing with each other.
- Fast to stitch. Because they're small, you can add several in the time it takes to complete one larger design — perfect for building up a full "favorite things" layout in one sitting.
- Versatile placement. Minis work stitched directly onto a garment or made into individual patches you add on afterward, giving you flexibility depending on the project.
How to Get Started
There's no wrong way to begin, which is part of the appeal. Here's a simple approach:
- Pick your favorites. Make a mental (or actual) list of the things that feel most "you" — hobbies, drinks, pets, travel, whatever comes to mind first.
- Choose your canvas. A button-down shirt is a classic starting point, but this works beautifully on jackets, tote bags, hats, and travel bags too.
- Place one design and step back. Start with a single design, then decide where the next one feels right. Resist the urge to plan it all out in advance — that's not the point of this trend.
- Keep going. Space designs out evenly if you want a more balanced look, or cluster them randomly for a busier, more collage-like feel. Both approaches look great — there's really no way to get it wrong.
- Finish with a monogram. A monogram woven into the mix ties the whole piece together and makes it unmistakably yours.
The Best Part? You're Never Really Finished
Unlike a traditional project with a defined start and finish, "my favorite things" embroidery is open-ended by nature. Find a new favorite thing next month? Add it. Discover a new mini design that speaks to you? Stitch it on. The project can keep growing right along with you, which makes it a wonderful low-pressure way to keep embroidering without the stress of "finishing" something perfectly.
That's really the heart of why this trend has taken off: it's fun, it's forgiving, and it turns a garment into something deeply personal — one small design at a time.
Ready to start your own "favorite things" piece? Browse our full mini design collection and start picking out yours today.
