How does scaling work on a stitch grid?

Because stitches are discrete, scaling up duplicates stitches and scaling down removes them. There's no blurring or smoothing — the grid stays clean. Small details can disappear when shrinking, so check the preview before applying.

What happens to partial stitches when I rotate?

Partial stitches are repositioned but their internal orientation (diagonal direction) doesn't change. After a rotation, you may need to manually adjust partial stitch directions if they look wrong.

Can I undo individual transforms within a session?

No. Everything you do before pressing Enter is applied as a single undo step. If you want to start over, press Escape to discard everything and try again.

What happens if I use Transform without a selection?

If there's no active selection when you press T, Stitchmate automatically selects the entire canvas (equivalent to Cmd+A / Ctrl+A) and enters transform mode.

Selection Transform Tool

Move, resize, rotate, or flip the stitches inside your selection — with a live preview. Press Enter to apply, Escape to cancel. Undo brings it back in one step.

Shortcut: T Location: Left toolbar → Selection Transform

Keyboard & modifiers

T: Switch to Selection Transform tool
Arrows: Nudge by 1 stitch
Shift+Arrows: Micro-nudge while previewing (snaps to stitches when you apply)
Cmd+R Ctrl+R: Rotate 90° clockwise
Enter: Apply all transforms
Escape: Cancel (discard all transforms)
Shift (while scaling): Keep proportions (no stretching)

Basics

Selection Transform changes the stitches inside a selection — move them, resize, rotate, flip. Unlike the Selection tool which only moves the boundary, Transform changes what's inside.

Transform basics — move, resize, rotate, apply

The workflow is always:

Select an area (or Transform will use the current selection).
Transform — move, resize, rotate, flip. Stack as many as you want.
Enter to apply, or Escape to cancel.

Everything you do before applying is a live preview. Nothing is permanent until you press Enter. After Enter or Escape you'll stay selected, so you can keep working.

Common uses

Move a motif 2–3 stitches so it's centered
Make a border a little taller without redrawing
Mirror an ornament for the other side
Rotate a small element, then touch up edges with Brush

Move

Drag inside the selection to move the stitches. They follow your cursor in real-time.

Arrow keys — nudge by 1 stitch. Clean, stitch-by-stitch movement.
Shift + Arrow keys — micro-nudge for fine positioning during the preview. When you press Enter, everything snaps cleanly onto the stitch grid.

Move stitches — drag or arrow keys

Scale

Drag the handles to resize:

Corners — scale width and height together.
Edges — scale just one direction.
Hold Shift — keep proportions (so circles don't become ovals).

Scale Up and Scale Down buttons (1.1× / 0.9×) are great for controlled, repeatable steps.

Because a pattern is a stitch grid, scaling works like this: scaling up duplicates stitches, scaling down removes stitches. Small details can disappear when shrinking — the preview is your friend.

Resize with handles — corner, edge, Shift to keep proportions

Rotate

Drag the small circle handle above the selection to rotate freely.

Use Cmd/Ctrl + R (or the toolbar buttons) for crisp 90° turns.

On a stitch grid, free rotation will always snap back onto stitches when you press Enter. That can create stair-step edges at non-90° angles — normal and expected on a grid.

Rotate — free drag and 90° turns

Flip

Flip mirrors your selection instantly:

Flip Horizontal — left ↔ right.
Flip Vertical — top ↔ bottom.

You can combine flips with move, resize, and rotate before applying.

Flip horizontal and vertical

Confirm & cancel

Enter applies everything you did in this transform session as one Undo step. Move + resize + rotate + flip = one Cmd+Z to undo it all.

Escape cancels and restores the stitches exactly as they were.

If you've stacked a bunch of transforms and it's drifting away from what you want — hit Escape and restart clean.

Apply / Cancel — Enter applies, Escape reverts

UI overview

Resize handles — small squares on corners and edges.
Rotate handle — a small circle above the selection.
Animated dashed outline — shows what's being transformed.
Toolbar actions — scale up/down, rotate, flip, apply/cancel.

Transform UI — handles, rotation handle, toolbar

Selection is where you draw and manage selection regions — rectangle, ellipse, lasso, polygon, magic wand. Use it to pick the region, then press T to hand off to Transform.

Tips & gotchas

Stitch grid rules. Scaling and rotation work on a stitch grid, not pixels. Scaling up duplicates stitches; scaling down removes them. There's no smoothing or blurring — everything stays crisp.
Partial stitches aren't reoriented on rotation. Their position changes but their internal diagonal direction stays the same. After rotating, check partials and fix any that look off.
Snaps to stitches on apply. Fine positions from micro-nudge or free rotation snap to the nearest whole stitch when you press Enter.
Auto-select-all. If you press T with no active selection, the entire canvas is selected automatically. Handy for quick whole-pattern transforms.
One undo step. All transforms before Enter are applied as a single undo operation. If you press Cmd+Z after applying, everything reverts — not just the last transform.