PURPOSE: To satisfactorily finish a pattern or the like having the varied direction by forming needle location points so that segments having end points alternated with equal pitch position provide a sewing line while tracing the profile of a watched picture image among original picture images from a picture image inputting device in the clockwise and counterclockwise direction.

CONSTITUTION: Original picture images are taken in from a picture image inputting device 12, subjected to the binary data quantization and housed in an original picture image memory 16 as picture image data. Next, one lump of serial picture images is taken out of the original picture image data and housed in a watched picture image memory 18 and then the profile line of one housed watched picture image is extract. Next, the profile of the watched picture image is scanned from the left upper side for example and the starting point is searched and registered. A certain number of picture elements are traced clockwise along the profile line to register the points. The movement of registering the coordinate of every a certain number of points as input points is carried out until the trace in the clockwise direction coincide with the trace in the counterclockwise direction so that after the completion of the trace the stitch data having stitches obtained by dividing the segment interconnecting the registering points are formed.