So, I know everyone probably knows how excited I am about Spoonflower, a new company that will print out YOUR fabric design on high quality 100% Kona cotton. The question at hand for people like us is, “How on earth do I get to the end result of receiving my lovely creation and being extremely happy with the outcome?”
What a great question! Let’s go through this designing/creating/editing/uploading process together to get to our FINAL swatch to upload to the amazing creators of Spoonflower. There are a lot of steps to go through and to think about.
Step 1 Think About Your Design
I know this may seem silly since that is the point of a fabric design, but stay with me a moment and let’s think about what exactly what you want to do:
- An image print? (ie. flower/animal/object design)
- A background print? (stripes/dots/ethereal feeling)
- Both?
- One image only? (One large cat)
- What colors do you want to us?
- Will you use another fabric with this design?
- If so, will your fabrics go together (colors/shapes/etc.)
This is just a short list I wanted to throw out there to get you to start thinking. For me personally, I need to start with a sketch and a color scheme.
When I get started I usually have an inspiration that comes from somewhere. Ever notice how the latest fashion designers have their show and the very next week every store from Nordstrom all the way through Target have the same exact styles? Interesting. Anyway, in the place that I’m at TODAY, I’m designing with a goal in mind and my goal is Spring 2009. I have a theme in mind: BIRDS. I have colors in mind: white, pink, green, yellow, and brown. This comes from the fabric inspiration of Alexander Henry’s “Aviary.”
This is an older fabric and I have still seen two other color-ways of it available to buy on the web (Sew Mama Sew), but I think it’s getting kind of scarce. For Summer 2008, I released a Mamma Made design using this fabric and it’s been pretty popular, so I may even re-release it next season. Usually that doesn’t happen, but we’ll see. Here is that design:
Another inspiration that I want to use in my new fabric comes from my “Lilly Bird Dress.” I may want to take this design in a new direction. This is also from my Summer 2008 collection:
This bird image was inspired by a drawing my niece Lilly Hannah drew me, thus the name, “Lilly Bird.”
So for me, I have a couple things to think about. Do I want a print of birds? Do I want a print that could BE a nice bird? There are so many avenues to think about and explore when it comes to fabric design. It’s kind of overwhelming a bit. But EXCITING!!!
Color Palette:
I’m going to start working on a stripe pattern first. I’m letting you look into my creative process so please don’t be too critical. You really need to mess around with a bunch of stuff and play before you come to something that really seems to fit with where you are going. You can sit down with some paper and some colored pencils and mess around. I’m going to do it on my art program (which I’ll talk about later) just so it comes across easier on the screen.
Ouch. This one really hurts my eyes! I’m pulling this apart.
You can see how I’m playing with the color and tweaking the width of the stripes just a bit. I kind of like the chunk with the green/pink/brown/pink/green with the bits of white interspersed. I like the concept of the yellow, but maybe I need to tweak the shade a bit. I feel like my eyes hurt when I look at it. Maybe a bit too cheery. Plus, there aren’t any rules that say you HAVE to use all the colors. This is a general color palette for my entire line so I can mix and match as much or little as I want.
I kind of like this buttery yellow better. Need to think on that a bit.
This is kind of a cool stripe.
You know what? I’m going to take a break from the stripe because my brain is really hurting right now. I can come back to that at a later time. The point is that you get what’s going on. Mess around and have fun!
Here is my original “Lilly Bird” drawing that I made on my art program from a hand-drawn drawing my niece Lilly Hannah made. Here is her drawing:
I promise I will talk about the art programs available in Part 2 of this series!
I’m going to mess around with this sketch and see if I like anything. Fun is the name of the game here!
I kind of like the feel of a more random placement like in the Alexander Henry fabric.
A couple twists and turns and by changing sizes and rotation I have this little piece going on:
Let’s see what this would look like tiled—and remember we are just working on a drawing concept. We haven’t even begun to implement color yet.
Kind of boring if you ask me.
Flipping them around adds some extra interest and the smaller birds are making cool flower-like patterns.
Not sure if I like it because the legs seem to stick out like sore thumbs. That could change when you get the color going. I love the smaller birds though.
Okay! This is it! My wonderful husband, Jon Galloway, steered me in this direction of flipping the bottom two mamma birds. Yay! That’s why I married him! I really do love it. Here is my sketch!
I thought I would get to plug in some color, but that’s going to have to wait for the next installment. Next time I will talk about different art programs out there for you to use on your computer. I want to encourage you and let you know that I have never taken a class on computer art programs. This is something that anyone with an interest can learn. Like anything (sewing for example!) it just takes a bit of practice. The hard part is actually coming up with the concepts. But you are all artists out there! You can do it!
I know that you absolutely can upload hand-drawn drawings onto Spoonflower, but even a hand-drawn drawing should probably be cleaned up a bit on an art program to get rid of lines and dark shadows. All of these things can and will be transferred onto your final fabric. It isn’t Spoonflower’s job to clean up your work—it’s your job!
More later on this awesome series!
Love, Rachel