tutorials

Spoonflower’s British Blog Hop

May 27, 2017

Can you believe it’s already been a year and a half since we opened our second factory in Berlin, Germany? For our European friends, we hope you’ve enjoyed the benefits of a closer factory such as faster turn-around times, placing your order in your country’s currency, and paying VAT upfront!

In celebration of this exciting year and a half, we’ve partnered with some of our favorite bloggers for our first ever Spoonflower British Blog Hop! Starting May 27, join us for a virtual trip to the UK to see what projects our friends across the pond are sewing up with their Spoonflower fabric (printed in our Berlin factory, of course). Be sure to check back each day as we update the blog tour schedule with links to the finished projects! [Read more…] about Spoonflower’s British Blog Hop

Your Guide to Sewing The Perfect Curtains

May 9, 2017

If you’re just starting out with sewing, one of the best projects to tackle first is curtains. With just a few straight seams, you’ll make a huge impact and learn a few key basics. Plus, it’s something you get to enjoy every day in your home, out in the open for guaranteed “oooo” and “you made those???!” remarks. Grab your iron, sewing machine and scissors as former Spoonflower staffer Theresa takes you through each and every step to sewing the perfect curtains.

Birch, please! Curtain fabric design by Willowlanetextiles.

The Pillow Every Pet Owner Needs to Have

February 17, 2017

One of our favorite custom-fabric projects of all time is the doppelgänger dog pillow. Originally dreamed up by Spoonflower co-founder Stephen, this brilliantly clever pillow was designed for Ruby, the first of the two rescue dogs that have come to live in Stephen and Kim’s home. Since then, the project has exploded — and we’ve seen everything from hedgehog to bunny rabbit versions stitched up by our customers. Get inspired and learn to make your own snuggly pet pillow!

Square pillow fabric is Freestyle (Black) by Domesticate in Linen Cotton Canvas

Alison Swimsuit Sew Along: Part 2

September 12, 2016

Welcome back to part two of our Alison swimsuit sew along with Sport Lycra! This type of fabric is just perfect to use for sewing up your own swimwear, and the Alison swimsuit sewing pattern is a great option since it is a one piece and can really show off the awesome print you chose for your fabric!

We left off last time in part 1 of the Alison Swimsuit Sew Along sewing the crotch seams together, and now it’s time to finish off the rest of the bodice. Grab your bust piece since we will be starting there.

DIY: Fun & simple decal home projects

December 31, 2012

Guest writer Emma Jeffery from the blog Hello Beautiful shares a handful of ideas for simple projects using Spoonflower wall decals to add fun and color to your home for the new year. Happy New Year, everyone!

I’m continuing to have fun thinking about ways to use Spoonflower decals and I’m excited to share a few ideas I came up with to add colorful detail to our home. For some of these projects, I’ve used my Fiskars Fuse Creativity System, which is a new die-cutting machine designed not just for paper crafters but for anyone interested in using all kinds of materials and textures in their crafting and home dec projects.

For other projects I’ve used scissors, but I can also recommend cutting the decal material with a rotary cutter and acrylic ruler– there’s nothing better for cutting perfectly straight lines when you need them.

I started with a simple set of coasters that are very quick to make up. I’m thinking of making a set for every holiday and special occasion throughout the year in a variety of fun colors and designs. These decals were designed by Ravynka from her April Rain collection.

To make my coasters, I used a sheet of cork, purchased from the craft store. After adhering the decal material to the cork, I ran the two layers through my Fuse Creativity System, using the circle die– which is the PERFECT size for coasters. And FYI, the 5” x 5” small decals will conveniently fit most of the medium Fuse dies.

Another fun project I worked on had me making up some magnetic frames that I’ve stuck to my refrigerator. They are a great way to neatly display photos, notes or keepsakes. As with the coasters project, I simply stuck the Spoonflower decals to magnetic sheets and ran it through my Fuse using the frame die. I used designs by Studio Fibonacci, Art Is Us, Holli Zollinger and Leighr.

For my next project, I used this cute owl design by Holli Zollinger. My 6-year-old daughter loves the sweet owls that are so popular at the moment, and these decals make it easy to brighten her room.

These decals are easily removed, leaving no sticky residue, so that in time the owls can be removed and replaced as her whims change. I cut out the owls using a small pair of sharp scissors with non-stick blades. If you do something like this, consider positioning them in a variety of ways. We really love the little owls who look like they are peeking around the corner.

It’s amazing to see what a big impact a little color makes to a room. I brightened up our plain white kitchen backsplash tiles with decal squares stuck to their surface. I used the square die with my Fuse to cut these, but you could of course use a rotary cutter and ruler on a cutting mat. I recommend using pattern weights to hold the decals flat whilst cutting.

I hope that some of these ideas have inspired you to think about different ways to use decals to bring a little fun and color to your home.

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.

Tutorial: How to create fabric from drawings

July 30, 2012

This week Anda Corrie from Etsy shares a tutorial for creating fabric designs out of drawings using Photoshop.

Make cute and simple fabric from your drawings!

Get some ordinary printer paper and your favorite brand of black marker or art pen. For this project, a thicker-lined pen is best. Decide what you'd like to draw–here, I'm drawing a bunch of smiling little kids–and draw
your subject all over the paper, repeatedly.

Don't worry if some of the drawings look a little off, just keep drawing—you'll get better as you repeat the image. Try a few variations as you go. Once you have a ton of little images all over the page, take a pencil and circle the ones you like best.

Take a second sheet of paper and lay it on top of the first paper. If you can't see the lines you drew through it, you may have to hold both sheets up and tape to a window. Grab your crayons and "color in" the drawings you like on the second paper. Color loosely, a bit lightly, and use blocky color. Let your coloring go a bit out beyond the lines if you like.

Scan both images at 300dpi and open in Photoshop.

First, make sure the background of the crayon image is pure white. We'll use Replace Color for this.

Click Image > Adjustments > Replace Color, make sure Preview is checked, and set Fuzziness to 25.

Click on the background of the image in the Preview window—this is the hue that appears next to the word "Color".

Now drag the Lightness slider all the way to the right—the "Result" box will turn white. You should see your image background turn bright white as well. (If you start to lose image detail in the crayoned parts, adjust Fuzziness to 15 or 10.) Click OK.

Now's a good time to crop your crayon image. I like to leave around 1-2cm at the top and left sides, and crop closely on the bottom and right. This will usually make the repeat flow nicely once it's uploaded to Spoonflower.

You can also open Image > Adjustments > Hue & Saturation if you want to quickly tweak your colorway.

Now for the line art image. Open Image > Adjustments > Threshold, set it to 128 and click OK. This will make your image completely black and white without any gradient.

Zoom (+) way, way into the drawings you've decide to work with. Using the Magic Wand tool, hold down Shift and click all the black parts of the image until it's completely selected, then copy what you've selected to your clipboard. Just work with one little drawing at a time here.

Head back over to your crayon image and Paste the drawing as a new layer. Move it so it's positioned on top of its colored-in background, and use Edit > Transform > Rotate if you need to line them up better.

Repeat with the remaining drawings you've colored. Flatten all the Layers of your image and if you like, open Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast—bumping both up will give you a more vibrant fabric, lowering them a touch will give a more muted image, which can be nice for a vintage look.

Open Image > Image Size and set the print size for your design. I like to set my image dpi to Spoonflower's default of 150dpi here, too.

Save and upload to Spoonflower! You can preview your pattern in different repeats—here I've decided half-brick is best. You're all done!

About Our Guest Blogger

Anda Corrie is an American illustrator, Etsy designer, and émigré living in Berlin, Germany with her small family. In her spare time she obsesses over vintage children’s books, makes homemade schnapps, sews tiny dresses that her 4-year-old stubbornly refuses to wear, and draws. Visit her Spoonflower shop for some lovely hand drawn fabric designs and her Etsy shop, Boosterseat.