year in review

Sustainability at Spoonflower: a look at 2015’s efforts

January 30, 2016

When choosing a new sewing project or simply packing your lunch for work, do you ever stop and think about the impact you’re making on the environment? Spoonflower strives to ensure that our fabrics are good for you and good for the earth, and over the past year, we put lots of new efforts into making our workplace event more sustainable. With January coming to an end, we look back on what we've accomplished through our employee-led sustainability committee as we look forward to advancing our mission to lessen our environmental impact in the new year.

Blankets for Good

Earlier this year, Spoonflower team member Meredith showcased one of Spoonflower’s newest employee crafted initiatives: Blankets for Good. This quarterly employee sew-in uses returned marketplace fabric (don't worry, we will never use your private fabrics!) to make blankets for those in need. In 2015, we sewed over 70 blankets, preventing over 140 yards of remnant fabric going to a landfill. That’s enough to cover almost half of the eiffel tower!

2015 Year in Review

December 30, 2015

It's been quite a year and we can't believe 2015 is already drawing to a close! Our community has accomplished so much together in these last 12 months, from contest wins to the launching of Sprout Patterns, to the opening of hundreds of shops with promising new designers to explore. Take a walk down memory lane with us as we recount some of our favorite highlights of 2015!

Our 8 Most Popular Blog Posts of 2015

1 | 5 DIYs to Make Your Resolutions Stick

2 | Fabric Labels For Your Handmade Goods

3 | 5 DIY Business Card Ideas

4 | How to Make a Fanny Pack (a.k.a. Belt Bag)

5 | How to Create Dolls From Drawings

6 | The Hand Strap Clutch: Pattern + Tutorial

7 | Secrets of a Top Seller

8 | How to Create Cozy Floor Pillows

2011 In Review: Top Ten Fabric Design Contests of the Year

January 2, 2012

As we here at Spoonflower head into the new year with a spring in our steps, we've decided to spend a little bit of time gazing into the rearview mirror at some of the memorable fabric-related statistics from 2011. It's been a great year for our little startup (which isn't nearly as little as it used to be) and an even better year for fabric design!

Check out our board on Pinterest for visuals on all the great fabrics listed below

Top 10 Fabric of the Week Contest Winning Designs

As regular readers know, Spoonflower holds a weekly fabric design contest. Below are the top ten winners from the 2011 contests based on the percentages they earned of the overall vote total in each contest.

1. Festive Forest Tree Decorating – Advent Calendar by kayajoy from our Advent Calendar contest at the end of November.

2. Bowling is Fun for Everyone by jennartdesigns from our Bowling contest in early September.

3. Queeny Brass by daniellerenee from our Spoonflower staff contest at the beginning of February.

4. Crayon Garden by beebumble from our June contest to design an 18" cloth napkin pattern using only crayons.

5. Sure and Begorrah, it's leprechaun laundry day by vo_aka_virginiao from our Leprechaun contest in March.

6. To the Circus!!! by bora from our contest to create a cut & sew pattern for a cloth baby book in December.

7. Teach Your Children Well: A Toile for Tots by sammyk from our (memorable) challenge to draw a toile inspired by the Civil Rights movement last January.

8. Little red riding hood by ninacuneo from the Folk tale fabric contest in May.

9. jingledecorations by sonny&bee from the Bell contest we just finished up last week.

10. Mariposa Magnifico by sammyk from the Lucha Libre mask contest in October (note that SammyK is the only designer to end op on this list twice!)

Top 10 Fabric of the Week Contests of 2011

We thought we'd also add the top ten contests based on the total number of people who voted in each one. In some cases the number of voters is an indication of the grooviness of the theme itself, but in some cases it's also a byproduct of our general site popularity on any given week. The top ten fabric contests this year were: