Author Archives: Maggie Rose Cashman

How To: Create a Mirror Repeat using our Online Uploader

Designing abstract textural prints may seem like a challenge, but by selecting the Mirror Repeat Feature when using our Online Uploader, your designs can be taken to the next level with minimal fuss when it comes to repeating your design. Here’s an easy to follow tutorial put together by one of our fabulous interns from 2018 – Emily!

Firstly, start out by creating your own designs and then scan them into your computer. We recommend to scan your artwork at 300dpi and in RGB colour mode.

For our artwork we decided to play around with line-work and contrasting colours to create a high energy zig-zag effect.

Open the design in Adobe Photoshop. It’s at this stage that you can edit your artwork if it requires any tweaks, such as changing the colours or removing / cleaning up elements. Once you are happy with your artwork use the crop tool to crop your design into a rectangular tile.

Check the size of your image by selecting ‘Image’ > ‘Image Size’ from the menu bar in the top-left of your screen. If the dpi of your image is larger than 300, please reduce it to 300dpi. If the dpi of your image is less than 300 you can keep it at this size. Please note we recommend artwork for digital printing to have a dpi of at least 150 for best results when printing onto fabric.

Save the tile as a JPEG so that it is compatible with the Online Uploader.

Next head to our website! The Online Uploader is available either clicking here or by copying & pasting this link: www.digitalfabrics.com.au/custom-fabric into your browser. Use the Online Uploader to upload your design. After the file has loaded you should see it in the fabric preview window.

To the right of the fabric preview window you will see a list of options, including any changes that need to be made to your artwork size as well as the type of ‘repeat’ required for your design. When first uploaded your artwork will always be shown using a ‘full drop’ repeat. Select the ‘mirror repeat’ option. This will reflect your design tile’s edges when placed next to each other, resulting in a seamless repeat pattern of your textured artwork.

Congratulations! You now have a repeat design all set to be printed on the fabric of your choice and applied to any project you can imagine!

Textile Collection Flora Folk

We had so much fun creating our last collection we thought we’d release another range of beautiful fabric prints dedicated to florals. This time round we completely changed our creative process to deliver fabric prints that felt entirely different to the soft, inky designs of the Palamporia Collection. Introducing our new Folk Flora range, which is available now in our Fabric Shop.

To make sure we were creating floral motifs that felt new we put the watercolours away! This time we wanted to focus on the textures and line work that could be achieved by working digitally only. This does unfortunately mean that we don’t have any gorgeous process illustrations to share, however we think the end results are stunning enough!

We began by collecting images of flowers to draw from, as well as endless scans and photographs we’d gathered of interesting textures. We drew our floral motifs digitally, giving them crisp sharp lines and overtly simplified shapes reminiscent of retro floral forms.

We then began to play with our gallery of photographs and scans. These images were manipulated, distorted and layered to come up with interesting designs to use to fill our floral motifs. Some designs, such as ‘Kaleidoscope Garden’, layer several of these digital textures to create a really rich patchwork, whilst others like ‘Stormy Blossom’ choose to showcase just one gorgeous texture. The strictly digital process of drawing, cutting and collaging resulted in designs that had a vintage flair, so accordingly we chose a warm colour palette that reflected this outcome.

With so many of our prints starting with hand-drawn elements it was refreshing to try a whole new process with a different set of restrictions and possibilities. The Folk Flora Collection creates retro feeling designs for the digital age, and can work for both fashion and interiors applications.

We’d love to know what sort of project you think this range would be perfect for – so get in touch! Designs are available in our Fabric Shop now.

Textile Collection Palamporia

Hello 2019 – we hope everyone is feeling refreshed after the break! We know it can be hard staying motivated after taking some much needed time off, so to help keep everyone on track with making 2019 a year full of creativity we’ve launched a brand new range of textile designs that feel summery, fresh and timeless. Introducing our Palamporia Collection.

When embarking on designing a new range we found ourselves being drawn to the intricately detailed and beautiful tradition of Palampore textiles. These textiles were common across India during the 18^th century and often featured hand-painted and hand-dyed designs depicting botanic motifs.

The creative process began by collecting gorgeous reference imagery and local flowers to draw from, and then illustrating the motifs in pencil. A warm colour palette was then selected inspired by colours commonly found in natural and vegetable dyes, such as indigo and turmeric. The painting of delicate floral motifs using water colours then became a worthwhile labour of love.

When putting the textile designs together it was important to mimic the undulating nature of the inky textures with interesting use of negative space and organic placement of elements. In some of the designs that have a more formal layout, the curved lines and water colour medium helps to give them a free-flowing feel.

The Palamporia Collection puts a contemporary spin on the tradition of Palampore textiles, providing a pared-back style with a limited colour palette. The play between lovingly painted details and crisp negative space shows its versatility. We can see these prints working well for both fashion and interiors applications. Gorgeous summer dresses and linen pants, and fresh feeling bedding and cushion covers spring to mind. We’d love to know what sort of projects you think these designs would be perfect for so please get in touch! Designs are available in our Fabric Shop now.

Textile Collection Native Whimsy

The end of year break is almost upon us! It’s a time that feels undeniably Australian for many of us, with road trips to the beach, seafood on Christmas Day and the annoying song of a mosquito to keep you up at night. We let this drive our creativity for our latest textile range, and have produced a range of prints inspired by the uniqueness of Australian flora and fauna. We’re excited to introduce our last range of prints for 2018, our Native Whimsy Collection.

Sprinkled Gumnut

We feel like the magic of Christmas invited our inner child to take control of our approach to this range as were drawn to naïve, rounded forms, reminiscent of the images found in children’s books. This sweet illustrative style gave a soft finish to typically jagged plants and bushy animals.

Digital Fabrics_custom fabric printing_native whimsy_rustled feathers_3

Ruffled Feathers

Digital Fabrics_custom fabric printing_native whimsy_rustled feathers_4

Ruffled Feathers

The elements which feature in the Native Whimsy Designs were first drawn with pencil before being brought to life with watercolour paints. The inky textures of watercolours suited the sweet drawing style we has embraced. The hand-painted nature of the designs provides textural balance for otherwise simple motifs.

Sprinkled Gumnut

Native Whimsy pairs big bold colours, such as hot pink and emerald green with plenty of white negative space and earthy neutrals. The result is a set of prints which makes wearing colour, or introducing statement hues into the home, a breeze.

Eucalyptus

The Native Whimsy Collection is a celebration of the wildlife that doesn’t make the regular ‘animal print’ or ‘floral print’ cut. We’d love to know what you think of these designs and how you think they would best be used so get in touch! Prints are available in our Fabric Shop now.

Textile Collection Tutti Fruity

It feels as though we’ve been hit with a heatwave! & what better way to celebrate things heating up than with a fun new range of textile prints that simply scream Summer. For these designs we’ve been inspired by the beautiful simplicity of summer fruits. We are very excited to introduce our new Tutti Fruity Collection.

Creative inspo came straight from our green grocer, and we were really excited to create a range of playful designs that celebrated simple motifs familiar to everyone. The range includes a quirky minimal print, a tangerine dream and a seriously sweet statement print.

A mixture of acrylic paints and watercolours were used to create the artwork for this range, resulting in a range of interesting and juicy textures. The hand-painted nature of the designs gives the range a lazily elegant feel.

It wouldn’t be a summer fruits inspired range without plenty of colour, and our design team did not hold back. The collection features plenty of bold colours and primary brights in perfect contrast to ensure balance within the prints.

The Tutti Fruity collection has been designed as a celebration of enjoying the little things, and we must admit we are definitely enjoying the change of season. We love to know what you think these designs would be perfect for so get in touch. Prints are available in our Fabric Shop now.

New Chevy Fabric

We have another very exciting addition to our fabric range which we are dying to introduce. Please meet our newest polyester fabric, the Chevy! We think this will be a particularly exciting launch for those with budding summer fashion projects!

Chevy is a polyester / spandex blend (92% polyester / 8% spandex) which provides the fabric with a little stretch. The small amount of stretch provides the fabric with some give, making it a really comfortable fabric to wear.

The fabric has an off-white base, with a chevron weave and a matte finish. The fabric’s composition and finish, results in strong colour reproduction when printed, making it an excellent choice for projects with bright and deep colours.

Chevy is a mid-weight 170 GSM fabric that is both durable and smooth to touch. Chevy is ideal for fashion garments designed to have structure to their form, whilst still being super comfortable to wear. We think the Chevy will be perfect for light suit jackets and blazers, bomber jackets, pants, culottes, shorts, skirts and dresses.

Tata Naka

Vogue Spain

Markus Lupfer

Whilst we think this fabric is most suitable for fashion applications, it’s durability, printed colour results and resistance to creasing would also make it a great choice for some interiors and events projects, such as tablecloths and banners.

Sample swatches of Chevy are available now through our Sample Pack Order Form. Get in touch with any projects you think our Chevy would be great for!

New London Fabric

We’ve been flat-out lately delivering fresh updates to our fabric stock range, and we’re very excited to introduce another polyester / spandex blend for you to get creative with! Say hello, to our new London fabric.

The London is a mid-weight, twill weave polyester fabric with just a little bit of stretch (95% polyester / 5% spandex), making it a really versatile addition to our polyester range. It’s 218 GSM makes it the sturdiest number out of our recent fabric additions.

The fabric has a matte surface, and a bright white base which results in really vibrant colours and crisp details when printing designs. This surface makes it perfect for designs with strong graphic elements and bold colours. The mid-weight fabric’s touch of stretch means it’s perfect for fashion garments that need to have both structure and a comfortable fit. We think the London will be ideal for trousers, jackets, outerwear and relaxed suiting. Wrinkle resistant London is perfect choice if you are looking for a fabric that doesn’t require much care.

Sample swatches of London are available now through our Sample Pack Order Form. We’d love to know what you’ll be using the London for, so get in touch!

Textile Collection Animalistic Innocence

This year’s big chill has had us dreaming of warmer climates, and in anticipation for sun drenched adventures and hot summer nights, our design team has been working hard on a new range of exotic prints for our fabric shop. We are very excited to introduce our new Animalistic Innocence Collection.

To create this playful range we we’re taking creative cues straight out of the Jungle Book, and wanted to create a visual narrative around the serene beauty of temperate forests, the thrill of being wild and the romance of being far away from home.

The gorgeous jungle inspired artwork for this range was painted using both inky watercolours and rugged dry brush techniques to create a variety of textures, line and form. It was important to maintain a naivety to the style of the design elements to give a sense of child-like wonder and curiosity.

Colour was central when designing this collection and a palette of luxurious greens, blues, golds and blush pinks were chosen. All of the motifs were then digitally manipulated and layered to create lush repeat patterns, full of interest and drama.

The Animalistic Innocence Collection has been designed to help you shake off those winter blues by taking you off the beaten path, so go wild for your next DIY textiles project and let our playful range of prints stir up some creative instincts. We’d love to know what you think these designs would be perfect for so get in touch! Prints are available in our Design Library now.

New Print Designs – Garden Party

Flowers and lemons and popsicles oh my!

During winter it’s just so easy to find yourself drawn to a neutral colour palette and minimal prints. To help unshackle you from the unlikely effects of the cold we’ve launched a new range of playful textile prints which are anything but drab. Introducing our Garden Party collection!

For this range we wanted to use sweeter than pie motifs, a mixture of neutral and bold colours and a consistently light-hearted theme.The quirky designs all began on paper, using pens, pencils and watercolours to create a variety of textures and lines. The artwork was then manipulated, edited and layered digitally to resolve and polish the designs.

Figurative designs can sometimes feel a bit too kitsch. To avoid this we combined bold colours with softer hues and mixed both textural and minimal elements within the same design. Negative space was also played around with, and as a result is varied across the designs, as they range from heavily detailed to simplistic.

The collection delivers a series of grown up novelty prints for the young at heart with whimsical designs and a statement colour palette! Designs are available in our Fabric Shop now! We’ll be keeping a keen eye on what you create with these prints, so get in touch if you have a project in mind!

New Whisper Fabric

We’ve been really committed of late to sourcing gorgeous new fabrics to offer all of our customers, and are very pleased to introduce the second NEW addition to Digital Fabric’s polyester range – the Whisper. If you’ve been dreaming of a fantastic alternative to silk, with a hint of stretch and zero sheen, then this dreamy fabric’s for you!

Whisper is a light-weight fabric with a matte finish and a bright white base, which provides excellent colour reproduction when printed. The fabric’s smooth textured surface makes visible the fine details of designs making it perfect for prints with lots of elements and / or texture.

The fabric is a polyester / spandex blend with a good amount of stretch, and has an ultra-fine surface. Whisper’s feel and flexibility makes it a perfect choice for fashion garments and accessories as it is really comfortable to wear, and soft to touch. Whisper’s slinky, liquid-like drape makes it a great matte substitute for silk, and is most similar to our Dilly fabric. We think this fabric will be just perfect for scarves, skirts, dresses, blouses, lounge-wear, undergarments and soft accessories.

Sample swatches of Whisper are available now through our Sample Pack Order Form. Get in touch with any projects you feel the Whisper would be fabulous for!

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