Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Today’s Fabrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
SECTION ONE: DESIGN AND COLOR
Know Your Patterns:
Fabric Design Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . 8
Design Parameters • Developing Your
Design Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
DESIGNER ROUNDTABLE Obstacles to Creativity . . . . . .. . . 26
Trends: Set, Follow, or Ignore? . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
DESIGNER ROUNDTABLE Trends and You . . . . . . 28
Copyright Primer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Step-by-Step Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
TUTORIAL Designing Repeats by Hand . . . . . . . 34
TUTORIAL Designing Repeats by Computer . . . . 38
Design Software and Tools • Proofing Repeats:
Why and How . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
DESIGNER ROUNDTABLE Favorite Tools . . . . . . . 56
Know Your Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Developing Effective Color Palettes
and Schemes • Working with Digital Color
• Applying Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
TUTORIAL Applying Color Schemes in Illustrator . 72
TUTORIAL Applying Color Schemes in Photoshop 76
DESIGNER ROUNDTABLE Branding with Color . . . . 78
Colorways and Collections . . . . . . . . . . . 80
SECTION TWO: PRINTING
Know Your Surface: Fabric Basics . . . . . . . 98
A Look at Fabric Construction
• Commonly Printed Fabrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Step-by-Step Hand Printing . . . . . . . . . 110
TUTORIAL Block Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
TUTORIAL Screen Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
All About Inks • Creating a Work Surface . . . . . 130
DESIGNER ROUNDTABLE Why Do You
Screen-Print? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Digital Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Pigment, Dye, and Dye Sublimation
• Printing • Digital Printing Services
• Color in Digital Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
DESIGNER ROUNDTABLE Why Digital? . . . . . . . . 140
SECTION THREE:
THE WORLD OF FABRIC DESIGN
Designing for Fun and Profit . . . . . . . . . 142
Short-Run Designing for Fun
• Designing for Profit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
DESIGNER ROUNDTABLE Fabric Design
and the Big Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Building Your Brand • Going Pro:
Should You Go to School? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Meet the Roundtable Designers . . . . . . . 155
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Introduction
Just a few years ago, it was a rare and special thrill to find fabric prints that inspired me to sew. I looked in quilt shops for anything bright, fresh, and modern among the sea of English garden themes, Civil War reproductions, and batiks. Apparel fabric prints in the chain stores bore no resemblance to the ones in my readyto- wear clothes. I had a weekend morning ritual of browsing for new arrivals at the handful of online fabrics shops. When I found something that caught my eye, I wanted to shout it from the rooftops to all my sewing friends. I knew there was a hunger out there for modern fabrics that wasn’t being fulfilled.
Since then, the fabric design scene has completely changed. The major quilting cotton manufacturers are producing collections for modern design sensibilities and a variety of applications— crafting, accessories, home décor, and apparel. Japanese manufacturers have begun to export their unique, ultracute, and artistic fabrics to retailers worldwide. Digital textile printing, using machines similar to your desktop inkjet printer rather than with traditional volume production machinery, has become affordable and accessible to all to create fabric designs and see them on fabric. Several small, independent fabric producers have sprung up, further diversifying the design voices. And the Internet has allowed everyone to showcase their products to a worldwide audience and has enabled designers to share their inspiration and processes. The fabric industry has started to open up. I no longer have to browse for hours to find great new fabrics—they’re everywhere. Still, there’s room for more variety and experimentation. A lot more. If you’ve ever dreamed of seeing your own designs on fabric, this is the time to make that dream happen. This book will show you how.
This book is divided into three main sections:
Design and Color, Printing, and The World of Fabric Design. In the Design and Color section, you’ll learn about the basics of both color and design and how to create repeating patterns by hand and computer. In the Printing section, you’ll learn how to get those designs onto fabric—through block printing, screen printing, digital printing, or licensing. The World of Fabric Design will get you thinking about designing for fun or for profit. Sprinkled throughout are valuable Designer Roundtables, in which experienced textile designers share their views of the industry and their creative processes.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or coming from other areas of art and design, and no matter what your professional or creative goal, I hope you’ll learn something that will help you carve your own unique niche in the ever-evolving field of fabric design. In conjunction with this book, I am launching a fabric printing forum on True Up for those of you who wish to ask further questions or share inspiration and resources. Just visit www.trueup.net/forum to join. See you there!