Tutorial: How to turn a vacation photo into a cotton silk summer dress

This week guest author Emma Jeffery from the blog Hello Beautiful shows us how she turned a vacation photo into a summer dress.

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I love the graphic photo print fabrics being used for all kinds of clothing items and accessories at the moment.  Although I am sometimes guilty of falling into the gray-black-white comfort zone combo when it comes to the colors in my wardrobe, there’s nothing like a bright splash of color to lift the spirits, put a smile on your face, and make you feel like summer is on its way! Rather than buying a dress in a store, I went a step further by immortalizing a simple vacation photo I took earlier this year and having it printed onto Spoonflower’s beautiful cotton silk blend.

I felt that this photo in particular was well composed for clothing potential, with a good contrast between the land, sea and sky, and with most of the ‘action’ towards the bottom edge of the picture.

You may have realized before now that I am a graphic design novice and that most of my projects involve software that either came on my computer when I bought it or that I have downloaded for free from various online sources. I am always looking for ways to push my computer to its limits and come up with design methods that bypass the typical Photoshop or Illustrator route that I neither own nor know how to use.

I began by editing my photo in Picasa and using the posterize option under their image processing tab, the photo became more graphic with high contrast and dramatic colors. I also rotated the photo as the landscape orientation worked better for my dress pattern layout.

After saving this version, I opened it up in Paint (yes, really!) where, under the resize option, I was able to increase the size of the photo. I worked out that if I sized up the photo to fit on 1.5 yards of cotton silk and set the design to basic repeat, 3 yards would give me enough fabric to sew up this Pleat Front Dress by Salme, and allow me a bit of extra room for good pattern placement and matching. 

Spoonflower produces a good quality print at 150 dpi so in order to make this photo fit 1.5 yards of fabric, you have to do a bit of math, which is easy if you have a calculator. And I do! The cotton-silk is 40” wide and 1.5 yards is 54” in length, so to resize the fabric I multiplied 40 by 150 (which give the dpi for the width) and then I multiplied 54 by 150 (which gave me the dpi for the length).

40 x 150 = 6000
54 x 150 = 8100

In Paint, I set the resize measurements to 6000 x 8100 with the ‘Maintain aspect ratio’ tab clicked off.

I then saved the file and uploaded it to my Spoonflower account. Once I set the fabric to print onto 3 yards of Cotton-Silk with a basic repeat, the photo fitted perfectly with a join line down the center that I knew I would be able to avoid when considering my pattern placement.

I’m now thinking about other kinds of landscape photographs that I may have that could be used in a similar way. I’m sure I have plenty of cityscapes and skyscrapers but market crowds, rainforests, underwater scenes or even sports stadiums printed onto clothing or accessories would certainly be a great conversation starter. What sceneries would you use?

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About Our Guest Blogger

Hi! I'm Emma, and as well as working on the Fiskars Design Team, I blog over at hellobeautifulblog.blogspot.com/

I'm an obsessive sewer, often leaping into projects with more enthusiasm than talent, more bravado than skill and more good luck than anything else. This technique has worked well for me so far and more often than not, I make things I love, even if they're not absolutely perfect. And though I'm no expert, I have a passion for fabric, color and design. I know what I like and what I like makes me smile.

Turn a family treasure into a fabric design: Make a silk scarf from old newspaper clippings

This week guest author Emma Jeffery from the blog Hello Beautiful shows us how she turned a family keepsake into a beautiful silk scarf.

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I have never really been the kind of person who collects trinkets, hoards keepsakes or has many treasured family heirlooms tucked away in the attic, but now that I have children of my own, I am increasingly aware of the importance of keeping items that will one day tell our family’s story. Our family history is no more, or less, remarkable than that of the next, but it is unique in its detail and its narrative is a gift for future generations to treasure.

That said, I am not naturally predisposed to keeping things that do not serve a practical purpose so I’m trying to think of ways to preserve the memories of events and people without cluttering up my house with boxes that are never opened or with figurines that sit on a shelf and gather dust.

When my mum told me she was in possession of a newspaper published on the day she was born I was immediately inspired to think of ways to release it from its captive state at the bottom of a dusty drawer and to bring the printed material to life once more. After all, what good are treasures or keepsakes if we don’t stop to reflect upon them once in awhile?

My mum was born in England in June 1944, the day after the Normandy Landings when the allied troops invaded northern France, resulting in the decisive allied victory that marked the beginning of the end of the Second World War. The newspaper is only 8 pages long (presumably because of the shortages at the time) but despite this, I felt there was a wealth of material: adverts, news columns, satirical cartoons, movie theater announcements, letters, crosswords...

I decided to take photos of different parts of the paper that caught my eye and although there was no ignoring the obvious war reports and political references, I found I was drawn to aspects of the paper that highlighted regular humanity during wartime. For example, there was an advert for soap which asked the readers to consider, ‘Will he find you as young and lovely when he comes home again?” I also took photos of the date printed on the paper (my mum’s birthday!)

With roughly 100 photos of different parts of the newspaper, I transferred them onto my computer and used Picasa to create a collage of my favorite images. In the collage option in Picasa, you are able to set a custom size so I put in 36” x 36” as I intended on making a silk scarf of these dimensions printed on to one yard of Spoonflower’s beautiful silk crepe de chine.

I then positioned and repositioned the photos I had taken until I was happy with the design. At this point the colors were still their original yellowing newspaper with black text, but using Picasa’s Duo-Tone option under the image processing tab, I was able to select two colors for my print.

Though I tried a few test swatches before printing my yardage, all the color options I chose were within shades of my mum’s favorite colors, to make this scarf really personal for her.

When I received my yardage, I trimmed the edges and sewed a hand rolled hem around all four sides to complete the scarf.

This is beautiful fabric with such a special print that I know the scarf will become a family heirloom. And whilst the original newspaper may soon be returned to the bottom of the drawer and forgotten once more, the scarf will be worn and enjoyed, and will help tell part of our story for generations to come.

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About Our Guest Blogger

Hi! I'm Emma, and as well as working on the Fiskars Design Team, I blog over at hellobeautifulblog.blogspot.com/

I'm an obsessive sewer, often leaping into projects with more enthusiasm than talent, more bravado than skill and more good luck than anything else. This technique has worked well for me so far and more often than not, I make things I love, even if they're not absolutely perfect. And though I'm no expert, I have a passion for fabric, color and design. I know what I like and what I like makes me smile.

Spoonflower Picks for Pretty Skirts

I'm so pleased that Susan and Adrianna at Crafterhours invited us to participate in their annual Skirt Week series this year.  From the many times I was teased as a girl for preferring long prairie skirts over jeans, til today when moms at my daughters' schools frequently ask me why I'm "so dressed up," I just love skirts.  It's been really fun this week to have an excuse to think about them so much! 

Susan asked me to share some of my favorite Spoonflower fabric designs that work well for skirts and I certainly have my own opinions and preferences. But since the Spoonflower office is jam-packed with sewing enthusiasts, it seemed a shame not to ask them, too, and they didn't disappoint. Offering their favorite design picks are Holly, our operations manager, Melodie and Allie, both printer operators, and Caroline, our graphic designer. We were all in pretty close agreement about our favorite types of fabric for skirts--more about that later--but we all chose very different designs.  Some of their favorites were designs that even I hadn't run across before on Spoonflower, and I hope you enjoy them, too. Let's get started with some pretty designs!

Holly standing at left is modeling a pretty summery skirt made up in linen/cotton canvas printed with Spoonflower designer Holli Zollinger's design, "Diamond Circles." (That's the aqua colorway shown on Holly's skirt above.)  Holli uses a lot of geometric shapes and stylized motifs in her designs and she's a Spoonflower staff--and Spoonflower customer!--favorite designer.  Chevrons, large-scale plus signs, and highly stylized natural motifs like flowers and raindrops are all featured in Holli Zollinger's designs and make up into really striking, sophisticated skirts. 

Pictured next to Holly on the right, Melodie is wearing a skirt made from organic cotton sateen printed with a design by KristopherK called "French Stripe." KristopherK is another popular designer on Spoonflower with a more subdued and romantic design style. Personally, I love KristopherK's lovely "Magnolia Little Gem" series which features white flowers falling across the width of their solid-colored backgrounds.  

The "Arctic" colorway in this series is shown above. You could cut simple A-line skirt panels on the crosswise grain of any of these fabrics and end up with an incredible skirt!

Caroline, shown here standing outside the Spoonflower office front door, is wearing an A-line skirt she made from organic cotton sateen printed up with her own design, "Red Eyed Susan."  Caroline actually has quite a few designs she's worked up in her Spoonflower shop, and has been giving her new sewing machine a workout using lots of prints of her self-designed, yoga-inspired favorites.  When it comes to the types of prints she tends to like, she says, "The bolder, the better!"  Her skirt pick from the Spoonflower marketplace is a kawaii style print by Zesti.  Tiny deer printed onto an electric yellow skirt, anyone?

Allie is shown here wearing a cute skirt she made out of Pennycandy's "Mix Tapes" design printed onto organic cotton sateen.

Amy Peppler Adams is the Seattle based designer behind the Pennycandy front, and her style is circus- and retro-culture inspired with bold type fonts, jukebox song labels and 1960's coffee cups rendered in primary colors.  These are bold choices for clothing items, but I think summer is a great time for playing around with novelty prints for clothing. Novelty prints are also known as "conversational prints" in the fabric world.  Don't you imagine conversations about your colorful skirts at the farmer's market, neighborhood cook-outs, and ice cream shops?

Allie says her next project will likely be a skirt made up in one of Domesticate's "Jumbo Dots" prints.  That's the mint/neon colorway shown here.  The dots are a hefty 2-inches in diameter!

Next up is me wearing a wrap skirt made from organic cotton sateen (care to guess one of the Spoonflower staff's favorite fabric types for skirts?) printed with Thebline's "ABP Chandelier" design.  I love its simple blue on white palette, but now feel like a complete dork for being the fourth person in this post to be wearing a black shirt with their Spoonflower skirts.  That was definitely NOT planned!

My next skirt will be made up in another Thebline design called "ABP par avion" which looks just like the pattern trimming air mail envelopes, don't you think?  I've got two yards of this design printed on organic cotton sateen sitting on my dining room table right now, suggesting that it will figure prominently in my upcoming long weekend.

And all these mentions of organic cotton sateen bring me to the subject of fabric types that we like to use for our skirt projects around here. When Spoonflower first started, we printed only onto quilting-weight cotton. This fabric is most commonly recommended for lightweight home-dec projects including, of course, quilts but I think that quilting cotton has its place in the skirt fabric pantheon, too.  I have a few quilting-cotton skirts that I think of as everyday skirts because they're hard-wearing, extremely washable, cheaper to make up, and I don't mind if they get dirty.  If I'm wearing a quilting-cotton skirt, it doesn't bother me so much when one of my girls sidles up to me to sneakily wipe off her dirty hand or runny nose.  (Ok, actually I do kind of mind about the noses. That's gross however washable my skirt is.)

But sturdiness isn't all that's needed in a skirt. I find that quilting-weight cotton tends to produce a stiffer skirt that doesn't drape as well as other fabric types.  It stands out from the body a bit rather than hanging in nice folds or swirling about my legs.  Most of us skirt sewers at Spoonflower tend to use our organic cotton sateen or linen/cotton canvas for skirt projects instead. The organic cotton sateen drapes just beautifully, has a lovely, subtle sheen, and measures a nice, wide 56-inches across. The linen/cotton canvas is also a nice choice for more structured types of skirts; it holds pleats and crisp edges beautifully and is a generous 54-inches wide. If you really want a flowy, feminine look, cotton/silk, cotton voile (with a lining), or silk crepe de chine are luxurious choices.  Just tell your kiddos there is to be no nose-wiping, please.

I hope you all enjoy the Spoonflower staff picks for skirts.  Now on to some pretty weekend skirt-sewing projects!

Crafterhours I Spy quilt squares giveaway and Denyse Schmidt book winner

Spoonflower I Spy Assortment: Alloy Set, from Crafterhours

I normally think of spring as my dress sewing season, not my quilting season.  The weather is staying warm now, my garden is in full bloom, and the idea of pretty printed cottons against my skin is mighty appealing.  Uncharacteristically, though, I find myself wanting to make up a new quilt, not new dresses.  Maybe it's because there are so many great new quilting books out at the moment or maybe it's because of the kick in the pants provided by the Spoonflower staff picnic a couple of days ago where we were embarrassingly low on staff-made quilts, but I am this close to a new quilt plan (and not at all close to a new dress plan).

If you're in a quilt-making mood yourself, enter this week's drawing for a giveaway of assorted I Spy squares curated from the Spoonflower marketplace and pre-cut by the lovely blogging and crafting duo Adrianna and Susan at Crafterhours.  (Not sure what an I Spy quilt is?  An I Spy quilt is an interactive quilt that can be used to play the I Spy game.  It's sewn from fussy-cut fabrics featuring motifs that are easy to identify.  You can browse a Flickr pool of I Spy quilts here.)

If you're our giveaway winner, you can choose your fabric set from either the I Spy Alpha, I Spy Eden, or I Spy Alloy sets.  (That's an Alloy set pictured above.)  Just leave a comment on this post or on the corresponding Facebook post, and as always, do include your Spoonflower screen name or some other means of finding you easily.  Entries close next Tuesday, 5/8 at 7 pm EST and we'll announce a winner on 5/9. Good luck, everyone! This giveaway is now closed and we'll be announcing a winner shortly.

Speaking of great new quilting books out now, the winner of last week's giveaway of Denyse Schmidt's Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration was Carmen Lingenfelter--congratulations and happy quilting, Carmen!

How To Create Your Own iPad Sleeve Using Kids' Art

This week guest author Emma Jeffery --  Fiskars design team member and author of the sewing and crafting blog Hello Beautiful -- brings us a lovely tutorial for designing fabric from children’s artwork and for making the custom iPad sleeve she created with her fabric.

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A couple of decades ago when the Internet was still in its infancy, we would have found it hard to imagine that the new digital, technological age would be instrumental in securing the future of more traditional hand crafts skills. I’m sure I’m not alone in admitting that the inspiration I get from reading craft blogs or tutorials, and seeing many entrepreneurial handmade careers succeed online, has helped me hone my own skills enormously. In fact, it almost seems that even in order to be successful offline, an online presence is essential.

If I get stuck on a sewing project (zippers usually, in case you were interested) or want to learn a new crochet stitch or even find a free pattern, the first and often only place I turn, is to my computer. And if you’d told me a few years ago that one day I’d have the opportunity to design a few of my own fabrics and sew them into unique creations, I’d probably not have believed you.

First off, as much as I’d like to be, I am not a graphic designer. I even downloaded the trial version of Illustrator but we did not get on very well with each other. The cursor always appeared at random on different areas of the screen, everywhere it seemed, except where I clicked, and though I did watch some very helpful beginner’s tutorials, I quickly realized that anything I’d be able to create would pale into comparison against the beautiful and professional looking prints available in the Spoonflower marketplace designed by people with amazing talent.

However, what I may lack in skill, I make up for with good ideas and enthusiasm, so I decided that in keeping with my interest in technology versus tradition, I would turn to a somewhat older design method than my embarrassing computer-based effort. I also decided to involve my children in this exercise because, well, they are much better artists than me.

My take on a traditional block printing method required some well-washed Styrofoam food containers, a couple of wooden skewers, paint and paper. I also found a small craft roller brush more useful than an actual paintbrush.

I cut the Styrofoam into pieces and had my kids use the sharp end of the skewer to etch drawings into them (larger, basic designs are more effective than ones with too much detail). When they were done, we rolled over the designs with paint and stamped them onto plain paper.

When dry, I took photos of the designs, uploaded them to my computer and edited them in my basic photo editing software, flipped around the writing and added simple frames, as well as playing around with the colors.

When my printed fabric arrived, I knew immediately what I’d use it for. What better symbol for the meeting of two worlds - the digital and the handmade - than an iPad sleeve made with a block print fabric created by my children, digitally edited, and printed just for me by the mighty Spoonflower! And until they make iPads that bounce when dropped, some sort of robust padding is essential (at least in my house).

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To make your own iPad sleeve like mine:

1. Cut 4 pieces of main fabric measuring 10” x 12”

2. Cut 2 pieces of main fabric measuring 9”x 5” (for the tab) 

3. Cut 2 pieces of quilt batting or felt measuring 10” x 12” (for padding)

4. With right sides together and leaving ½” seam allowance, sew two of the 10” x 12” pieces together leaving one long end open plus a 6” opening in the opposite long end. This will be your lining (inside) piece.

5. Repeat step 4 with the other two 10” x 12” pieces and also with the two felt pieces but don’t leave the opening hole. Sew all the way around 3 sides, leaving one long side open. Clip all corners and trim seam allowance to reduce bulk.

6. With right sides together, sew the two tab pieces together, leaving one long end open. Turn right way out and press. Top stitch around the 3 sewn edges of the tab.

7. Turn your outer sleeve piece right sides out. Keep your felt piece wrong sides out. Insert the felt piece into the main piece with wrong sides facing. Baste together along the long edge.

8.  Pin and baste the tab piece to the outside of the main piece. Trim raw edges if necessary.

9. Keep lining wrong sides out. Insert the outer piece (with the felt insert and tab attached) into the lining with right sides facing.

10. Sew all pieces together, catching the edge of the tab in your sewing.

11. Pull outer section through the hole you left in the lining and stitch the lining hole closed, folding the raw edges inwards.

12. To finish, sew Velcro onto the tab and front of the sleeve.

I used about ½ yard of linen-cotton canvas to make one sleeve, which means that because I started with 1 yard, I have enough left to make another one-- perhaps for a gift for a doting grandparent!

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About Our Guest Blogger

Hi! I'm Emma, and as well as working on the Fiskars Design Team, I blog over at hellobeautifulblog.blogspot.com/

I'm an obsessive sewer, often leaping into projects with more enthusiasm than talent, more bravado than skill and more good luck than anything else. This technique has worked well for me so far and more often than not, I make things I love, even if they're not absolutely perfect. And though I'm no expert, I have a passion for fabric, color and design. I know what I like and what I like makes me smile.

Craftsy class giveaway and WhimseyBox winner

Does the least little hint of spring weather make you start daydreaming about sewing pretty cotton dresses?  It sure turns my mind that way.  I think I've spent all my spare seconds for the past week mentally matching up pretty fabrics with dress patterns I've spotted.  Like MelissaMelissa's roses with this Vintage Vogue dress.  Or StephanieA's Prairie Flowers as this classic shirtwaist dress.  I spent the weekend carefully picking apart and tracing a 1940's era rayon dress that had seen much better days so that I could recreate it in a Spoonflower fabric. Maybe in DanielleB's white Summer Floral, or Demigoutte's Ditsy Kites, or Monda's Itsy Bitsy Ditsy (4).  Did I say daydreaming?  Perhaps it's a bit of an obsession.

Sadly, this obsession of mine has not so far translated into awesome garment fitting skills.  Yet.  But I'm working on it!  In fact, I just found out that one of my very favorite retro dress sewists, Gretchen Hirsch from Gertie's Blog for Better Sewing, is offering a class on Craftsy on sewing the perfect bombshell dress.  Woo-hoo! 

Care to join me in a little dress obsessing?  This week, we're giving away a chance to win admission into this online class or, if dress-making is not your thing, into any other quilting or sewing class on Craftsy.  Craftsy classes are taught by people who really know their stuff and best of all, the class never expires.  You can take it whenever you want and as often as you want!

To enter this drawing, just leave your comment on this blog post or the corresponding Facebook post. Include your Spoonflower screen name so we can track you down easily, and let us know which class you're interested in.  Good luck and happy pre-spring sewing, y'all!

Last week's winner of the 6-month subscription to WhimseyBox was Berene Campbell of HappySewLucky, and I know she'll make good use of it. Congratulations, Berene!

Apple season

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Designs from top left:  "Beetle Dots" by Hamburgerliebe; "Apple trio green" by Aliceapple; "Pink flower,apple,mushroom" by Bora;"Apples orange" by Heidi Kenney; "Apple Prints" by Weavingmajor; "Apple Jacks" by Cynthia Frenette;"Poison Apple" by Shirayukin; "Apples" by Natalie; "Golden Apples" by Simplysweet

On my coziness agenda this weekend:  figuring out tasty ways to use up the roughly 30 pounds of apples that Stephen and the kids and I recently picked at a farm in Western N.C.  Apple butter is definitely on my list, and apple-printed fabric jar toppers would dress them up nicely for gift-giving, I think.  Happy fall weekend, Northern Hemisphere peeps--I hope all of you out there have coziness agendas of your own that you're working on!

Sewing for fall with cotton silk

Cotton silk order received yesterday plus rose pink cotton velvet sitting in my stash for two years plus WholeGrainBaby's Swing Coat pattern should equal one swank new fall coat for my middle daughter this weekend. [Pictured fabric is by Joybucket]

Anyone else working on a cool weather project this weekend?  It's suddenly chilly here in NC!

Home or office decorating idea for under $15: Making a fabric canvas

Having just snapped a photo of one of the fabric frames Spoonflower team member Caitlin has in the window by her desk, I decided that rather than sharing it by itself it might be a better idea to post the photo in the context of a short, very simple (very) tutorial:

Creating a beautiful frame to hang on your wall -- or place in your office window -- using Spoonflower fabric is an easy and inexpensive decorating idea that costs less than $15. A fabric frame also makes an affordable and original gift!

Materials:
Fat quarter of Bluebird fabric from Golly Bard's Woodland collection: $11
Masterpiece 8" x 8" wood stretcher frame (from Amazon): $1.96

Tools: staple gun

Time: 5 min.

Quilting-weight cotton works fine for canvas stretcher frames, but for a more sturdy fabric that holds slightly denser color from the inks you might choose linen-cotton (see available fabrics). We used Gollybard's fabric for the frame pictured above, but Spoonflower is full of unique fabrics that would work just as well!

Browse Spoonflower fabric designs

2011 Tea-Towel Calendar Template... so you can design your own tea-towel calendar!

For those of you wondering how to make your own 2011 tea towel calendars to print on Spoonflower, below is a calendar template to get you started.

We're a bit late posting this, given that our 2-for-1 tea towel sale ends tomorrow (Friday, Dec. 3), but better late than never. There's still almost a month to go before the New Year starts.

Download 2011 Tea-Towel Calendar Template In MS Word Format

Download 2011 Tea-Towel Calendar Template as a PDF

If you download the Word version, you can edit the fonts and colors as you wish, then save the file as a PDF that can be imported into a graphics program like Photoshop, or the much cheaper Pixelmator (for Macs only).

If you're in a hurry, just download and import the PDF we've set up. Please note that, while I dearly love Google docs, importing the .doc file into Google docs will mangle the formatting. I haven't tried it, but it might survive the transition to OpenOffice, however.

For our tea-towel calendar, Stephanie and I scanned some fall leaves on our office scanner, then I outlined them in Pixelmator and pasted the leaves around the edges of the PDF calendar layer I had imported.

I also photographed, on a white paper background, a few pine cones, nuts and leaves. By playing with the brightness and contrast in the finished photo, I managed to get rid of any shadows in the background of the images. Then -- just as with the leaves -- I pasted the individual elements (as transparent PNGs) into new layers in the calendar file in Pixelmator.

The resulting calendar is set up to fit on a fat-quarter of quilting weight cotton (21" x 18"), but I'm printing it on linen-cotton canvas, which will make a sturdier tea towel.

<--- Here it is coming off one of our printers!

Buy Stephen's Tea Towel Calendar

Shop for great tea towels by real artists

Top Eleven Fabric Craft Kits Available On Spoonflower

One of the wonderful things about the Spoonflower marketplace is that it’s full of fantastic little projects that are a snap to make, and in many cases everything you need fits on a fat quarter of fabric.

Here is a list of my top eleven favorite kits (in no particular order, because it’s so hard to pick favorites!).  Any of these would make an awesome handmade gift. For the super crafty people on your list, you could just give them the kit and let the fun of making it themselves be part of the gift.

1.  See the world with $11 and a sewing machine! The globe kit by weavingmajor is one of our most popular designs probably because it is such a great idea.  Beautifully rendered, educational, and fun to play with, there are several different sizes of globes you can order, and every one comes with more than just one globe to make.

 

 

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2.  Little girls will love the Yum Yum Dolly apron set by Victoria Lasher which, depending on whether a fat quarter or a yard is ordered, results in an apron for their doll and a matching one for themselves.  Mom can help make it and have a matching apron too!  Kids will love all the little details, like the coordinating oven mitts and the pocket surprises, and the mom's apron comes with all the same whimsical features.  Check out victorialasher's coordinating fabrics designs, too, for other kitchen projects.

 

 

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3.  Speaking of dolls, some of our most popular designs have been doll clothes kits by Daniel Bingham, like this trio of dresses for a 16” doll.  With only a fat quarter, your little girl’s doll can have three gorgeous new outfits!

 

 

 

 

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4.  And speaking of aprons, this hilariously wonderful design by French artist nadja_p is a kit for a fish oven mitt and matching apron, great for a guy or girl to wear in the kitchen and have some fun.  Sew and stuff the extra little fishes for some charming little household decorations.

 

 

 

 

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5.  Tea towels are always easy and elegant to make and give, but what I love about this tea towel kit by cathyheckstudio is that one yard gives you two double-sided (read: ultra lux) lovely towels.  The fact that the design is a 2011 calendar makes it all the more multi-tastic.

 

 

 

 

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6.  The possibilities are endless for printed fabric gameboards.  Check out this fun beach-theme game by kkitwana, which might end up becoming a family vacation favorite.  Fabric gameboards are so much more durable, kid-friendly, and transportable than your average cardboard-boxed game, and this one is certainly beach-friendly.  Plus, the designer suggests that it could even be made into a tablecloth or a fun beach wrap.

 

 

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7.  The Spoonflower marketplace is full of amazing puppet kits.  One outstanding design is Pinkerton the Pirate Cat by melissamelissa.  Pinkerton comes with a sidekick finger-puppet, First Mousemate Squeek, and plenty of extras like a treasure map and an eye-patch.  

 

 

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8.  Gorgeous pillows can be made from any Spoonflower fabric, but thank goodness for designers like antoniamanda, whose pillow kit printed on a yard of fabric provides an adorable duo of front and back fabric to make two darling accent pillows for your home.

 

 

 

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9. Whether its the holiday season or not, it’s never too late to make cute ornaments for your own Christmas decorating, or to give as gifts.  Baubles by gomakeme are easy, adorable, and would look spectacular hanging from a Christmas tree, or from the bow of a wrapped package.  Check out the designers other kits, like the stuffed Mr. and Mrs. Santa softies.

 

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10. Get your sewing space organized with a cute pincushion.   The sweet design by anda, printed on a fat quarter, gives you enough to make a pincushion for yourself and a few more for your crafty friends.  

 

 

 

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11.  Placemat fabric by heatherbrady makes dressing up your table so easy.  Just cut and hem the placemats and try to resist keeping them for your own table.  Wouldn’t a set of them make a sweet wedding present?  

 

 

 

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Spoonflower fabric has endless possibilities for imaginative folks, but sometimes it’s nice to just have everything all ready to go, and these kits do just that. What are your favorites?

 

 

Fall Craft Project: Create your own fabric using leaves - no Photoshop required

People who are not familiar with design tools like Photoshop and Illustrator often ask me how they can go about creating fabric designs to print using Spoonflower. There are many approaches you can take, of course, but just for fun I threw together this very short how-to video on making your own fabric design using a handful of colorful, fall leaves and a simple home office scanner.

A new sewing obsession

In the last 24 hours, I have become completely obsessed with sewing a zigzag quilt.  It all started with a general feeling of bummed-ness that came on while reflecting that I am really not so good with the clothing sewing.  Then came a little twinkling of re-interest in home-sewing projects. I start craving as much cozy as possible when the weather turns cool.  Shortly thereafter, dear Stephen picked me up a copy of Material Obsession which pictures quilts sewn with just the right mix of reproduction vintage fabrics and funky modern prints.  Then on to the Material Obsession blog--where I saw this beauty--and then on to the Flickr zigzag quilt pool.  (Is there a Flickr pool for everything?)  I'm totally smitten.

Lest you dismiss this quilt project because of all that triangle piecing, did you know that you can make one with strip-pieced square blocks sewn on point?  You can!  Amanda Jean from Crazy Mom Quilts offers a tutorial on Bee Square Quilts here!

Summer scraps

Scrappy placemats
Originally uploaded by Secretsugar

More sewing projects lately as I try to think up reasons to stay inside where the air-conditioning is. 100 degrees in NC today--ack!

Stephen and I have been in sore need of placemats for some time now seeing as how our two younger daughters' dinners end up mostly on the table rather than in their mouths. I'm nearly through with this set that I made mostly out of scraps I had on hand. The green floral scraps and backing are a reworked vintage floral that I printed up on the linen/cotton, though, and I'm thrilled to find an everyday use for it. It's a bit tight getting my perle cotton running stitches through the close weave, but sore fingers notwithstanding, I'm pleased with how this project is turning out so far. I may add more machine-stitched circles and more running stitched circles in green--especially if we keep having more 100 degree days around here!

True Up's ideas for digital printing

The ever-resourceful Kim Kight of True Up posted an excellent brainstormed list today of 20 ideas for digital textile printing.  I'm delighted to see that she included printing up embroidery designs onto fabric because I've been trying to do just this sort of thing myself lately.  Editing my image in Picnik and dorking around with the pencil sketch and duo-tone functions (light gray and white) just about does it, but some of you actual design pros can probably think of a better way.  Spoonflower tutorial anyone?  There could be some free fabric in it for anyone who wants to take this on....

Kim's list is pretty darn comprehensive, but comment away if you have anything else to add!

Kanzashi crafting

Crafty young'uns
Originally uploaded by Secretsugar

I think of summer as my "indoor season." In mid-summer NC, it's just too darn hot to do anything but sit inside and sew. Apparently, my oldest daughter and her friend thought so too, it being a scorching 95 degrees even before lunch today. These two accompanied me to the Spoonflower office this morning and looked very cozy and crafty indeed, sitting on our sofa, checking out Diane Gilleland's new book, Kanzashi in Bloom, and sorting through pretty fabric bits.

Naturally, we have no shortage of fabric scraps lying around the house and the office, so it was a simple matter for my 11-year old to put together a cute little flower, following all Diane's excellent instructions on her own and wrangling the hot glue gun like a pro. No word on what the flower is going to be used for but it's cute, huh? New necklaces are next on our craft list, I think!

How to make "real" oilcloth

Picnic and outdoor barbecue season--not to mention messy crafting with children at home from school season--has brought a fair number of requests from you all about whether we can print onto oilcloth.  I'd hate to see what would happen if we put modern PVC-based oilcloth through our printing and heat-fixing process.  But it hadn't occurred to me to wonder about how oilcloth was originally made until I saw this tutorial on how to make "real" oilcloth by ModHomeEcTeacher via Curbly today. 

I've got to be honest here and admit that I haven't tried this with Spoonflower printed fabric yet, but it sure seems like an interesting idea if you've got the (drying) time and space.  Maype to end up as kids' place mats?  A new back-to-school lunch bag?  Or those cute sandwich wraps eco-conscious folks are using in lieu of disposable plastic baggies?  Hmmmm....

Swimsuit Cover-up Contest

Singer and Craft magazine are co-sponsoring a Swimsuit Cover-up Contest--do y'all know about this?  You have until 7/16/09 to submit your entry via the contest Flickr pool where, incidentally, there are only 2 entries so far.  Does this mean you have a fair shot at the grand prize or one of the 3 runner-up prizes?  Could be! 

Father's Day Creature Shirt from Ann Tuck

I keep being startled by how close Father's Day is and how woefully unprepared I am with a gift for Papa Stephen. Yikes! Perhaps this sort of project is the way to go, huh? After all, Stephen wears t-shirts, the kids like to draw, and mama likes to sew. A happy group of gifting circumstances!

See Ann Tuck's post about her family's Father's Day gift creation here.

Easy shirred dress tutorial

By way of Craft magazine, Threadbanger has this excellent video on how to make an easy shirred summer dress.  If you've ever felt--like I did--that surely it couldn't be as easy as it sounded to create shirring with elastic thread, view on!  On video, it sure looks that way!