Repeat Patterns: Sateen Repeats

Regular or irregular sateen or spot repeats lend the motifs a non-directional aspect. This creates the appearance of a free distribution of motifs and a flowing design concept, as the spots seem to be scattered at random. The advantages of this are that stripes are less likely to occur in the pattern and the design tends to be more effective because the fact that the main motifs can be placed in a variety of directions, giving the pattern more movement, and the actual repetition of the pattern is better concealed.

Sateen arrangements are often used as the basis for textile designs in home furnishing and printed fashion fabrics, as it enables the arrangement of the pattern pieces on the fabric in an efficient and economical way.

There are two main points to consider when creating sateen repeats: avoid ‘repeat marks’, unwanted gaps, holes or clusters, which might appear when the design is repeated, and limit the scale of the motifs, as smaller ones tend to be more successful.

… From Repeat Patterns: a manual for designers, artists and architects, by Peter Phillips and Gillian Bunce.