Via Wren, I learned that this year is the 250th birthday of toile. She created two toile patterns (including “Darling Toile,” above) in honor of her native South Africa for the design magazine Visi. They’re free for download from this link. Even if you’re not interested in toile or modern twists on it, it’s worth [...]
The Daily Swatch features a piece of vintage fabric (almost) every day. Themes change periodically. Please add your own examples of the theme to the True Up and/or Vintage Fabric Flickr pools. Seersucker gets its characteristic puckered texture from a special weaving process. Some warp yarns are put on the loom with regular tension, while [...]
The Daily Swatch features a piece of vintage fabric (almost) every day. Themes change periodically. Please add your own examples of the theme to the True Up and/or Vintage Fabric Flickr pools. Terry cloth is a uncut-pile weave fabric. Pile fabrics (which also include velvet and corduroy) are made with an extra set of yarn [...]
To go along with this week’s daily swatch theme, a roundup of bicycle fabrics you can actually buy! (I know, I should do this more often … ) Phillipa by artist Grayson Perry, part of last year’s Liberty of London Art Collection. Spotted at Purl Soho in three colorways. I like how the bikes [...]
Last summer I tested out four digital fabric printing companies by printing the same design with all of them and comparing the results. The post included a comparison chart covering pricing, available basecloths, color matching info, and other details. That chart was sorely in need of an update (mostly due to the introduction of the [...]
Unlike the floral print I showed you on Friday, you can actually see both the horizontal and vertical edges of the repeat in this one(from the vintage collection of chickadee nest on Flickr). First, we isolate a motif and connect the dots. Triangle = half-drop. (I screened back the fabric a little so you can [...]
It’s a little trickier to find geometric one-way designs but I think I’ve done it. Although this print could be turned upside down or sideways and still work, it wouldn’t look exactly the same — the pink/orange/brown rainbows would be frowning and the yellow/black rainbows would be smiling. From Robotic Kid on Flickr.
Just because it’s one-way doesn’t mean everything has to sit straight up-and-down. This Americana print feedsack on eBay (ends in five hours! hurry!) has the feel and flow of a tossed print, even though you can only turn it one way. I’m thinking the designer intended this to be transformed into an apron.
Lizzy House, designer of adorable fabric lines Lizzy Dish, Red Letter Day, and the upcoming Castle Peeps (all for Andover Fabrics), recently spilled about a book she’s written (well, an e-book, but a book’s a book in my book) called How To Enter The World Of Textile Design: For The Quilting Industry. Since I started [...]
Sometimes prints are layered, and one of the motifs or layers will have one direction and the other(s) will have another. Think of tossed flowers over a plaid background. The final determination, though, is based on the most restrictive directionality. In this print from the collection of mannagryn design on Flickr, the hearts are pointed [...]
The Daily Swatch features a piece of vintage fabric (almost) every day. Themes change periodically. Please add your own examples of the theme to the True Up and/or Vintage Fabric Flickr pools. In a continuing series on pattern types, this week the Daily Swatch will feature one-way prints. These are prints in which the motifs [...]
I’m running low on motif-based theme ideas for the Daily Swatch, so I thought I’d take a breather for a while and turn my attention pattern types. You might remember this post on directionality that I wrote with the help of Michelle of Cicada Studio and now Cloud9 Fabrics. I’ll be devoting a week to [...]
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London A British reverend’s daughter named Barbara Johnson (1738-1825) kept a meticulous diary throughout most of her life (from age 8 to well into her 80s) of the fabrics she used and details of the garments she made with them. What an amazing personal and historical document. Doesn’t it inspire [...]
On the Pink Chalk Studio blog, Kathy has the lowdown on the differences between the new laminated cottons (from Westminster Fabrics in particular) and oilcloth. They are quite different creatures, it turns out. Kathy includes thorough care and sewing instructions for the laminated cottons — and be on the lookout for some projects tomorrow.
Welcome to Part Two of the Felt Craft Book Roundup: the cute, the zakka, the Japanese. (Part One is here.) Kata Golda’s Hand-Stitched Felt: 25 Whimsical Sewing Projects, by Kata Golda, STC Craft, 2009. Cute simple sweet projects, for kids, home and self. Get the full True Up review here. Did someone say cute? I [...]
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