Archive for the ‘Fabric Study’ Category

Batik

COLOURLovers recently featured this extensive look at batik which included the video above. The processes shown here look nothing like what I imagined, and now I’m eager to try them out.

Do any of you work in scrubs on a regular basis? I don’t myself, but in my various speech therapy jobs I’ve had many co-workers who do. And I’ve noticed that scrubs are getting more hip. Several companies, like Dickies and Urbane, are making women’s scrubs that are a lot more body-conscious than the standard-issue [...]

My Big Digital Fabric Printing Experiment

Earlier this year Fabric on Demand joined the pioneering Spoonflower in offering affordable digital fabric printing over the internet to the everyday crafter. Soon after, two more services popped up, Karma Kraft and Eye Candey. (Full disclosure: the latter two are also True Up sponsors.) I had a single design printed by all four services [...]

20 Ideas for Digital Fabric Printing

Historically, the introduction of new technology does not usually result in an immediate change in design styles. Initially, design for any industrial application continues to follow the style associated with the preceding technology; the first motorcars, for example, were designed to resemble horse-drawn carriages. Change only begins to occur once practitioners coe to understand the [...]

Textile Design at Chelsea

above two works by Emma Rampton Textile Design at Chelsea is (was?) a blog covering student work at the Chelsea College of Art and Design. It hasn’t been updated for two years, but there is still a lot of inspiration there. Melanie Bowles, co-author of Digital Textile Design (covered here last week), is a Senior [...]

HAND/EYE Magazine

HAND/EYE Magazine is “an independent, international publication which explores the nexus between design and development, culture and commerce, art and craft, and environment and ethics.” Its debut issue’s theme is Africa, and it contains many articles on African textiles. I’ve been trying to learn all I can about African fabrics for an upcoming series, so [...]

How Much Fabric? Series from After the Dress

Don’t you hate it when someone beats you to the punch on an idea? I had always planned on doing something like Gwen (After the Dress … )’s “How Much Fabric?” Series. But in this case, I’m not beating myself up too much — she did it much more systematically and comprehensively than I would [...]

Swimsuit Fabrics or: the Spandex Superpost

Well, it’s 105 degrees Fahrenheit here today. Texas is in for a long, hot summer. A morning spent at the shady neighborhood wading pool today got me thinking about sewing my own swimsuit. I probably won’t this year, but it’s fun to think about. Are there any good fabrics available? The answer is oh, yes. [...]

Inspiration Board: Triangles

I’ve been conceiving some patterns and am mighty inspired by triangles. Here are some new and old uses of this motif from various media. This is a collaboration between Mati McDonough and Lisa Congdon for the upcoming exhibit Little Pink Houses at The Curiosity Shoppe in San Francisco Tammis Keefe Candy, Sewing & Nibs hankie, [...]

Silk Series: The Sheers

It’s been a while since I last posted an entry in the silk series — it had to be put on hold for Spring Quilt Market coverage, but now it’s back! Today, here’s a guide to some of the more common lightweight, sheer silks, just in time for summer. I still have a few more [...]

The New Cheaters

Backing up my assertion that cheater prints are back. And why shouldn’t they be? You get more prints for the money, and if you actually turn it into a quilt, no one will really think you’re a cheater. The Japanese have cornered the cheater print market lately, but I’d say the revival was really kicked [...]

Silk Series: Working With Silk Taffeta

Now that Della has introduced us to silk taffeta, I wanted to write a little bit more about it, and my experience prepping the fabric and sewing with it — this is the only silk I’ve had a chance to work with, in fact! Silk taffeta is a light-to-medium weight plain weave that uses heavier [...]

Silk Series: della Q. on Silk Taffeta (Meet the Sponsors)

So far in the silk series we’ve covered silkworms and silk production, jersey knit, charmeuse, dupioni, and peace silk. Today, we focus on silk taffeta. Nobody is a bigger fan of silk taffeta than Della of della Q, one of True Up’s sponsors. She has a popular collection of silk knitting bags and needle cases, [...]

Silk Series: Peace Silk

“Piccadilly” silk from Ahimsa Peace Silk It takes around 3,000 silkworm cocoons to produce one pound of silk fabric, which translates to death for millions upon millions of silkworms each year. Or does it? There is a mini-industry of “peace silk,” also known as “vegetarian silk,” which claims to allow the silkworm to live its [...]

Silk Series: Dupioni

There are a large handful of variations of the word “dupioni”: douppioni, doppione, duponi, dupion … and probably others. I’m going to run with “dupioni” just because that’s what seems to be the most common. Whatever your preferred spelling, they all refer to a type of silk made from double cocoons. Many sources say that [...]