Temporary outage: organic cotton sateen

Due to a temporary gap in our supply of organic cotton sateen, we made it unavailable on the site starting late Friday afternoon. We expect this to remain the case for about a week or so, but it could be longer depending on how long the new shipment is held in customs. The outage will not have any impact on orders that have already been placed.

As many of you know, we've had to do this before. We are very sorry! We will continue to work with our suppliers to try to prevent gaps in supply. We are grateful for your patience.

Submissions now open for contest to design fabric for Boba organic baby carrier: $500 prize

From today (Thursday, February 18) through next Thursday (February 25), you can submit one fabric design in your Spoonflower account to a special Fabric Of the Week contest being sponsored by NAP, Inc,. the makers of the Boba 2G, a baby carrier made using organic cotton. The winning fabric design, as selected by the Spoonflower community in voting March 1-7, will be used in the back panel of the baby carrier. The winner will get to work with the folks at NAP, Inc. to name the new carrier.

DETAILS

• Theme: nature. Choose a design that appeals to children and parents alike.
• Each designer can enter a single fabric design from her Spoonflower account. [If you don't have a Spoonflower account, they're free. Get started here.]
• Entries are open from Thursday, February 18 through Thursday, February 25, midnight EST.
• Voting will take place March 1-7 via the Spoonflower blog and newsletter.
• The winner will be announced on March 9, 2010 and will receive a $500 check from NAP, Inc.

TO ENTER

• Log in to Spoonflower. If you don't have an account, create one.
• Go to your design library. If you don't yet have any designs, upload the design you wish to enter.
• Pull down the Action menu underneath the design you wish to enter in the contest, and select Boba contest under Enter in Contest.
• Choose the layout option for your design, then click the button that reads "Enter in Contest". If you wish to change the size/dpi of your design, you can do so using the edit option on this page.
• If you decide to enter a different design or make changes, you can withdraw a design by following the same steps, then entering a new design.
• You can only have one design active in the contest at a time. Once the entry period closes, we will 'freeze' the submitted designs.

DETAILS & GUIDELINES

• Upload designs in JPG, PNG, TIF, or GIF format. Your artwork should be sized at 150 dp. Once uploaded,  use the contest entry page to edit the repeat style of your fabric design.
• Please submit an original design that complies with Spoonflower's Terms of Use.
• The fabric panel on the Boba carrier is roughly 15 inches by 10 inches, but is not rectangular.
• The point is not necessarily to design a panel that fits exactly into the available space, but to design a beautiful fabric that will make the carrier more striking when sewn into the back panel.
• Other fabric colors in the pack that your design should coordinate with: black and brown (Pantone 4695 U). The green Boba logo is Pantone 381U.
• Submitted designs must be public. To edit which of your designs are public, visit the Design Gallery page in your Spoonflower account, click on Design Details and check the box on the lower right that reads, "I would like to include this design in my public gallery."
• In the keywords field please enter the word "Boba."
• The size of the panel and the carrier colors are shown in the photo to the right. Note that the hex values of the colors vary quite a bit depending on your computer monitor -- if you are seriously trying to match the colors of the carrier, use the Pantone values.
• The area of fabric that will be used in the carrier is the area in the photo that is green.
• If your design wins the contest, you'll have a chance to work with NAP, Inc. to tweak and refine the design as needed before the fabric panels are printed and the carrier goes into production.
• Please note that unlike Spoonflower's usual weekly contests, participants in this contest must agree to grant NAP, Inc. full ownership rights to their design should they win the contest. Neither Spoonflower nor NAP, Inc. assert any rights over submitted designs not designated winners. You may delete any design you upload to Spoonflower at any time.
• While we do not require that a design submitted to the contest have been purchased first, please consider that it's a good idea to at least see for yourself what your design looks like on fabric before entering it in a public contest. Swatches are $5.
• If you have any questions, please drop us a line here.

Visit the official contest page, which includes all of the above information as well as more about the carrier itself.

VISIT OFFICIAL CONTEST PAGE

Free Swatch Day Starts At Midnight, New Organic Knit + Bamboo-Cotton Poplin

Free Swatch Day: Thursday, August 20th. Starting at midnight tonight and lasting through 11:59 pm on Thursday (EST), you can get up to two free, printed swatches.  We're taking Free Swatch Day as an opportunity to raise money for Heifer International, an organization that provides  livestock, training and services to small-scale farmers and communities worldwide. Have fun. This is a great opportunity for folks new to Spoonflower to give us a try, so please help us spread the word! We've posted all the Free Swatch Day details HERE.

New Fabrics!

Remember that fabric survey we posted a few weeks ago? Well, we haven't been able to put together everything you wanted but we do have two very exciting new fabrics to announce based on your suggestions. Free swatches, anyone?

Organic Cotton Interlock Knit ($27/yard). 100% organic cotton. Very soft, natural off-white knit perfect for t-shirts, dresses, baby clothes and more.

• 52" wide (printable area)
• 11 oz per square yard
• Interlock knit stretches along the crosswise grain about 25%
• Certified organic cotton by Global Organic Textile Standards (GOTS)
• Appropriate for many kinds of children and adult apparel items
• Machine wash warm or cool using phosphate-free detergent

Bamboo-Cotton Poplin ($27/yard). Rayon made from 40% bamboo / 60% cotton blend has a very soft hand and smooth, absorbent surface.

• 52" wide (printable area)
• 4.3 oz per square yard
• 100 x 70 threads per inch
• Estimated shrinkage: 6% length, 4% width
• Appropriate for apparel items like blouses, shirts, pajamas, dresses, and light skirts, as well as bedding and children's items.
• Machine wash warm or cool using phosphate-free detergent

Sewing Green with Betz White

We are thrilled to be working with Sewing Green author Betz White to offer a limited edition Sewing Green print on 100%  organic cotton, along with a chance to win a free book!

Click the link below for details: