Thursday, January 26, 2012

So, Who Wants to be a Fabric Designer?

Custom Funky Door Fabric, Created Online in 3 minutes (don't remember where I got the photo)
Have you ever been searching for something on the Internet and wandered off on a tangent, which led you to another distraction, which led you to an exciting discovery?  I have no idea what I was originally looking for online this morning, but I stumbled onto an affordable resource for custom fabric printing, even in small quantities.  Starting at just $16.20 per yard, with discounts on orders of 20 yards or more, Spoonflower can unleash the inner fabric designer in all of us.  You can order as little as a fat quarter of your custom design on a quilting weight cotton, or you can order 15 yards of your design printed onto a cotton/silk fabric for drapery panels, or you can order a half yard of your custom fabric creation printed on organic cotton interlock for a pair of adorable toddler pajama bottoms; other fabric options are available as well.  Are you excited yet?

To create the fabric design shown above, all I did was upload a photo (regrettably, a photo that I copied from somewhere and plopped on my desktop weeks ago -- I have no idea where I got that turquoise door picture.  If anyone recognizes it, let me know!).  Once the picture uploads, you get a preview and you get to manipulate the way the design repeats.  I think I just did a half drop repeat.  I didn't crop the picture or mess with it in any way, because I have so many other things that I should be doing right now. 

I actually took pictures of quite a few interesting doors when I was in Paris last September, without having any idea what I was going to do with them.  How cool would it be to create custom fabric from each photo in fat quarter quantities for a special Doorways of Paris quilt? 

I can think of so many cool custom fabric ideas now that I've found this resource:

1. Your kids' artwork
2. Your kids' scary school photos
3. Product photography from manufacturer's web sites (for personal use only).  How cool would it be to tile a photo of your favorite gorgeous chair or chandelier?
4. Your business logo
5. Pictures of your dogs
6. Pictures of your annoyed, sleepy husband sticking his tongue out at you -- you know, the pictures you promised you had erased 

Tiffany Diamond Rings, images from Tiffany
I used images of "important" diamond rings from Tiffany ("important" seems to mean $600K and up) to create this virtual fabric.  There are links on the Spoonflower web site to information about how to prepare and manipulate your photography or artwork in a variety of software programs before using them for a custom fabric design, and I'm sure I could figure out how to change the background color, etc., but for now all I'm doing is uploading a photo and trying out different repeat options.  How fun would the Tiffany bling fabric be in a girly "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" quilt?

Okay, back to work for me.  I've got laundry going on in the background, I haven't eaten lunch yet, and before I know it I'll be headed to pick up the boys and begin the Cruel Parental Homework Torture phase of my day.  Time flies when you're playing on the Internet instead of working, doesn't it?

1 comment:

Ivory Spring said...

You can definitely be a fabric designer, Rebecca! You definitely have the touch!!!

Thanks for your kind words. Still mending as we speak.

Have a great weekend.