Apparel

Sunday Sew: A Sprout Pattern!

November 29, 2015

At least one Sunday a month, we like to take some time out to share a unique sewing experience that stands out a bit from the rest in a series we call "Sunday Sew." This month, Spoonflower staffer Allie stops by to talk about her experience sewing up a sophisticated Sprout Patterns Laurel Blouse, which she wore on her trip to NYC for Martha Stewart's American Made 2015 Awards!

Allie: I had the opportunity to stitch up my first project by Sprout Patterns a few weeks ago in preparation to attend Martha Stewart's American Made awards. While I've done quite a bit of sewing, when it comes to apparel I tend to stick to the most basic silhouettes. For the event, I wanted to look polished and professional, while still remaining comfortable.

I chose the Laurel Blouse by Colette Patterns printed on Silky Faille and it did not disappoint. I opted for a simple design created by Andrea Lauren. Her black and white Animal Constellations printed beautifully and was exactly what I wanted–a quirky yet sophisticated design unique to Spoonflower's crafty community.

If you haven't tried Sprout, or sewing apparel, you certainly should! It was super easy to create a custom top that I was able to tailor slightly for a better fit. By ordering a few sizes larger than I normally wear, I had the flexibility to adjust the side seams to achieve the fit I was looking for. Being creative with your order and sizing allows you to "hack" your Sprout Pattern and be able to adjust sizing and tailor your garment to fit perfectly. The instructions were clear and easy to understand and allowed me to make a unique top in no time. I also had the original PDF with all sizes so I can make another one in months to come! Have you tried Sprout? What is your favorite Patternmaker featured on the site? Please share in the comments below!

+Allie

Win a Copy of Gertie’s New Fashion Sketchbook + 2 Yards Poly Crepe de Chine

October 28, 2015

It's safe to say we're obsessed with Gertie's New Fashion Sketchbook! We love a good interactive book, and this one is by far one of the best we've seen–not to mention the gold foil cover! Flex your creative muscles and channel your inner fashion designer as you sketch your way through this amazing book! For Gertie’s New Fashion Sketchbook, Gretchen Hirsch teamed up with illustrator Sun Young Park to reinvent traditional figure templates—known as croquis—for the 21st century. Instead of the unnaturally skinny, tall, and frequently off-balance croquis the fashion industry has been sketching on for decades, this game-changing alternative presents hundreds of realistically sized and proportioned female forms in balanced, lifelike poses. In addition, Park has rendered the croquis with multiple tracing lines, allowing the sketcher to follow the lines that most accurately reflect the body shape desired. Also included are an overview of the design and sketching process and a visual history of garment component styles, all to make it easier to create fashion sketches for women of all shapes and sizes.

A body-positive sketchpad to help you achieve your fashion design dreams.
Loaded with more than 300 figure templates that are proportionally true to the female form and adaptable to different body types, plus helpful sketching tips and resources.
A breakthrough for aspiring and experienced designers tired of the industry standard of sketching clothing on female figures that are unnaturally skinny and tall (and sometimes even off-balance).
Printed in a special ink that fades away when you photocopy it.

Ready to get your hands on a copy? We're giving one lucky winner the chance to take home a copy along with two yards of Poly Crepe de Chine, our newest apparel fabric that is perfect for whipping up your beautifully sketched ideas.

Enter by Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015 for a chance to win. The winner will be contact via email on Wednesday November 4th. Good luck!

ENTER NOW!

Have you Heard of Sprout Patterns?

October 20, 2015

Wendy Top by Sew Liberated in Cotton Lawn | Design: Shoal (on navy) by cerigwen

We are so thrilled to share the news that our friends at Sprout Patterns have officially launched their site! Sprout Patterns is a new service that offers curated indie sewing patterns that you combine with Spoonflower designs–your own or from the Spoonflower Marketplace–to create customized cut and sew projects.

Detail of Manhattan blouse by See Kate Sew | Designs by heleen_vd_thillart

Can’t decide what to do with that lovely little hedgehog fabric you favorited last week? Stitch up a Zippy top or a sweet little skirt in half the time using Sprout. By digitally printing the design of your choice into the pattern, you’re left with the best part, the fun of sewing up the garment is left to you—no messy paper pattern pieces to fuss with! Simply log in using your the email address and password associated with your Spoonflower account. Same as on Spoonflower, you receive 10% off whenever you order your own design, which you receive back into your account as Spoondollars. Designers also receive up to 15% commission when their designs are ordered on Sprout patterns!

Dreamer Top by See Kate Sew in Modern Jersey | Designs: Cross plus arrows lime green by misstiina and Lime Fibers by Becka Rahn

Negroni Shirt by Colette in Linen-Cotton | Design: Call of the Wild by Nouveau Bohemian

Anna Dress from By Hand London in Poly Crepe de Chine | Design: Cantaloupe Flowers on Red by Pond_ripple

Recess Raglan by See Kate Sew in Sport Lycra® | Designs: See You Later Alligator and See You Later Orange Stripes by Zesti.

Sidekick Sling Bag by Betz White in Linen-Cotton | Designs: Mod Max Leaf and Paintdrop by Betz White.

What Sprout Pattern are you most excited to stitch up? Tell us in the comments below!

CREATE YOUR PROJECT TODAY

This Weekend, Sew the Romper of Your Dreams

September 11, 2015

While reviewing the results of this week's 90s Nostalgia contest, it dawned on me that we're overdue for some floral romper/overall ideas to satisfy our hunger for a modern take on comfortable, throwback fashion. Today, we've gathered together a handful of cozy and stylish rompers for all ages, sizes, tastes and sewing abilities. This weekend, sew the romper of your dreams.

Our new Poly Crepe de Chine would be perfect for making rompers like these. You could also try Cotton Lawn Ultra and Cotton Poplin!

DIY Sew-Along Romper | MimiG Style

(View the sew-along video here!)

Marseille Romper for kids sizes 2T-12 | Sew What Club

Short Jumpsuit Pattern | Burda Style

DIY Floral Overalls/Romper | The Pine Needle Collective

V-Neck Playsuit | Salme Pattern Shop

If you've never worked with a polyester crepe fabric before (for example, Poly Crepe de Chine), Salme Pattern Shop offers some tips about working with it:

"Polyester crepe is a great, wallet-friendly alternative. It’s woven from hard spun yarn which gives it a crisp, textured surface. Unlike most polyester fabrics this one has a matte finish, making it look a lot more expensive than it really is.

Ideal projects vary from tailored suits to floaty dresses and tops. I would recommend taking advantage of the beautiful drape and using it for dresses and skirts with wide hems.

The drape might fool you into thinking this is a light weight fabric, but it comes in a variety of weights. Because of the rough texture you might end up with quite bulky seams so grading seam allowances is recommended.

It’s a hard wearing so you'll end up with a garment that will last for decades – provided you sew it well!"

Welcoming an Elegant New Fabric to our Line Up!

August 25, 2015

Design: Chelsea by Candy Joyce

Some of you may remember when we launched Poly Crepe de Chine as a limited offering back in fall of last year. Many of you fell in love with this fabric. Hard. Since retiring it, we've received so many requests for it to come back that we decided it was finally time to bring Poly Crepe de Chine in from the cold and make it part of our fabric family!

Poly Crepe de Chine is a lightweight 100% polyester crepe fabric that is perfect for projects that require a soft drape and a delicate weight. This exciting addition features crisp, bright colors that hold up very well to multiple washings.

Designs: Slices–Grape by Kurtcyr and Boho Stripes (Purple) by: Robyriker

Poly Crepe de Chine has a 52” printable width and is ideal for women’s apparel, curtains, wedding decor, and elegant accessories.

Design: Batik Love Bug by hooeybatiks

You’ll find Poly Crepe de Chine available for order starting today. Try out a swatch to see how it feels or if you’ve already got a project in mind, go ahead and order enough to get started. Be sure to check out more photos of the new fabric!

Refresh your Wardrobe with 5 Patterns + Fabrics

May 25, 2015

Freshen up your closet this week with these garment sewing patterns. We've rounded up five of our favorite apparel patterns that are sure to be weekly staples. Can't decide what fabric to use? No worries, we've included fabrics from the Marketplace that would be perfect for each piece!

Everyday Skirt | Oliver + S

Garden. Warm Hue. | Designed by Yaskii

Lakeside Pajamas | Grainline Studio

Southwest Stripes | Designed by Ottomanbrim

Brume Skirt designed by Deer and Doe

Dealtry + Wiksten Print in Cerulean | Designed by Wiskten

Harem Pants designed by Indiesew

Rhomb Small White on Black | Designed by I Got Stripes Studio

Aster top by Colette Patterns

Spanish Tile Pattern | Designed by Eliza Jane Curtis

Spoonflower Picks for Pretty Skirts

May 25, 2012

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!

2012 Spoonflower Staff Challenge Pt 14: Tattoo Knit Shirt On the High Seas

March 14, 2012

This is the fourteenth in a series of fifteen posts describing the projects that are part of our 2012 Spoonflower Staff Challenge. Voting begins tomorrow!

Turner’s Tattooed Tee

It’s hard to live up to what happened last year. Seeing as how the strategy was successful then, Turner and I (Danielle) decided stick to what we know we are good at and what we love. For Turner, it was his wicked modeling and idea-generation, and for me, hand-drawn images.

We opted to keep our project simple and shareable! Turner is modeling our raglan-style tee with thumb holes printed on Spoonflower’s organic cotton interlock knit. The shirt is an approximate men’s size medium, and can fit up to a 38-inch chest. We have plans in the near future to offer more sizes down to the wee-est of folk. The tattoo pattern wraps the body in a seamless set of great tattoos.

While Turner and I are both tattoo-less, we have always secretly coveted some awesome skin art. I have a serious love for sailor style tattoos, and Turner had some great ideas for what he’d like to see and where they should go. The squid across the back? All Turner’s idea.

All the artwork, just like a real tattoo, is drawn by hand with love and care. Just in case you were wondering, you can spot other tattoo ideas from Turner as well. Turner is a music major at one of the local universities and his music themed tattoos are integrated throughout. We’ll have sewing instructions added to our tee soon, followed by some additional sizes.

2012 Spoonflower Staff Challenge Pt. 2: Nirvana Through Knit brought to you by Team Prana

March 8, 2012

This is the second in a series of posts describing the projects that are part of our 2012 Spoonflower Staff Challenge. Voting begins on Thursday, March 15, 2012.

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Team Prana consists of design wrangler Caroline and print wench Janet, otherwise known as Coco and Jaja. Coincidentally we have both lived in Sweden and came up with our idea one day while having our regular Monday fika. I was telling Janet about the yoga classes I've been taking and how everyone was very stylish and colorful. I have a bright purple mat, but usually wear all black and thought it would be fun to spice it up a bit. The discussion moved on to colors, how they correspond to the various chakras and what they represent. We began by thinking it would be fun to combine meaning with form and function. After considering a few ideas involving coats that turned into sleeping bags, we changed gears and focused on brainstorming and creating designs for the pieces in our collection. What started as a few pieces and the idea of a couple of designs blossomed into 6 distinct pieces and 12 different designs. We decided to focus on the top three chakras and design around those colors and use elements traditionally associated with yoga (the OM symbol) and India.

Violet/purple governs the CROWN chakra, at the top of the head and represents BEAUTY, CREATIVITY & INSPIRATION.

Indigo governs the BROW chakra or third eye, in the centre of the forehead and represents INTUITION, MYSTICISM, & UNDERSTANDING.

Blue governs the THROAT chakra and represents KNOWLEDGE, HEALTH, DECISIVENESS.

SUMMARY OF PIECES

VINYASA WRAP SWEATER (reversible):

(Janet takes over here…) We wanted to create a sweater that could be worn to yoga class and could also be worn out after class. I set out to design a sweater that would be comfortable and loose-fitting but also stylish and versatile so it would look great with yoga pants as well as a pair of jeans. I decided to go with a "blanket wrap" style sweater because I thought it would drape really nicely with the Spoonflower knit fabric.

A blanket wrap sweater is really simple to make. Start with one large rectangular piece of knit. Drape it across your shoulders horizontally to decide where you want the arm holes to be. Cut two identical arm holes in the fabric. Next cut two identical sleeves out of the remaining knit. ( I traced a sleeve pattern from another pattern that I had laying around the house). Make sure that the width of the sleeve goes with the stretchy direction of the fabric. I hung the sweater on a dress mannequin and then pinned the sleeves onto the sweater before sewing them on to make sure that they hung well. Caroline had designed so many great patterns that halfway through the project I decided to make the sweater reversible. To make it reversible cut the exact same sweater and sleeve pieces out on a contrasting fabric and assemble them into a second sweater.

Here's the fun part: Lay the identical wrap sweaters directly on top of one another, pattern-sides together, and pin them. Because the sweaters are two large rectangle shapes you can sew them together just like a large pillow case. Make sure that the sleeves and edges line up and that you leave a small opening to turn the new sweater inside out. Then just tuck each sleeve into its coordination sleeve. Now you have a reversible sweater! I used two yards to Spoonflower knit to make each "side" of the sweater.

ACCESSORIES:

Along with the reversible sweater we created additional yoga accessories to complete the look.

We used a complementary pattern to create an infinity (loop style) scarf out of knit. I took one yard of Spoonflower knit, folded it over the long way and sewed it together to make a double sided scarf. Caroline then added snaps to each end so that the scarf could be snapped together to take on multiple shapes. You can unsnap the scarf to wear it long, snap it together to create a long loop, or loop it twice to have a warm neck scarf.

We used another knit pattern to create a simple headband to keep your hair pulled back while doing yoga. I used a fat quarter of Spoonflower knit and was able to make several small headbands. I measured the circumference of my head and measured it out on the stretchy direction of the knit. I cut the fabric twice as wide as I wanted the headband to be so that I could fold it over and make it double sided. Then I sewed it into a loop.

The last thing I made was a stylish yoga bag to carry gear to and from yoga class. I traced another shoulder bag that I had and used it as a template. The body of the bag consists of 5 pieces: the front and back pieces, two thin side panels, and the bottom panel. The bigger the side and bottom panels are, the more your bag will be able to hold. I sewed the pieces together and then made a small pocket for the front of the bag and two straps. I used the Spoonflower linen because it is sturdy and strong. I lined the bag with Spoonflower sateen in another one of Caroline's complementary patterns.

(Back to Caroline…) Two more essentials of every yoga practice are an eye pillow and a mat carrier. I used the cotton-silk for the eye pillow because of its soft and luxurious feel. I used one swatch folded in half to create the pillow and filled it with bergamot scented flax seeds.

The carrier is a design that I came up after noticing that people either struggle with an unruly mat and no way to keep it together or just simple straps that are usually in black and can easily get tangled when not in use. This carrier design brings vibrancy and fun to your practice, is easy to wash and can be carried in your hand or over your shoulder.

If you would like to check out the designs we used in our projects and the other pieces in the Prana collection, click on each image here and you'll go straight to that fabric page. Namaste!

APPRECIATION:

We would like to thank our beautiful models, designer and illustrator Amanda Wright of Wit and Whistle and her puppies Mabel and Oliver. Side note: if Amanda's home looks familiar, it's because it was featured recently on Design Sponge.

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