It’s come that time again to introduce our newest featured artist of The Designer Project! Today, we are delighted to introduce the exceptionally talented Dominique Collins and her awe-inspiring textile collection, ‘Whimsical Nature“. Join us as we delve into the enchanting world of the ‘Whimsical Nature‘ textile collection, where textile artistry meets cuteness and child-like imagination!
Dominique draws her inspiration from the great outdoors, whether it’s spending time with the kids or enjoying activities like running and cycling. Nature’s vibrant palette of colors and shapes fuels her creativity, and her curated collection beautifully reflects this, featuring rainbows, leaves, snakes, and flowers.
What’s even more exciting is that all of Dominique’s exquisite designs can be transformed into custom designer fabrics of your choice. Now that we’ve given you a glimpse, it’s time to dive deep into each of these cute enchanting designs. Keep reading to uncover the hidden treasures within ‘Whimsical Nature”!
Foxes and Blooms is full of sweet fox and foral motifs, inspired by the whimsical movements and shapes foxes make while running and jumping, while the flowers are inspired by the dainty wax flowers you find in native Aussie flower bouquets.
Foxes features super cute little foxes against the most lovely blue background. The blue really makes the orange foxes pop in the design! It was also inspired by the whimsical movements and shapes foxes make while running and jumping.
Rabbits and Blooms showcases the delicate and cute movements rabbits make while exploring a field of flowers. It has a wonderful pink colour palette with pops of blue and orange.Rabbits features the most adorable little pink bunnies! We love the soft and gentle vibe of this design and the white background really makes the Rabbits the star of the show.
Rocket into Space is full of bright and playful rockship motifs. It was inspired by Dominiques son and his infinite love for space!
Blooms and Shrooms Midnight Blue and Blooms and Shroom Peachy Beige feature a magnolia tree and morel mushroom colour palette to create a bright yet whimsical feel. The motifs are inspired by vibrant mushrooms and Dominique’s daughters love for pretty little flowers.
Rainbows Forever is a fun and colourful design, filled with gorgeous bright watercolour rainbows. The watercolour details and colour palette give a handmade fun feel.
Falling Soft Blueberry Blue Leaves and Falling Peachy Pink Leaves are beautiful delicate designs, filled with soft rounded leaves. It makes you think of nature during the autumn and winter season, leaves falling from the tress making a confetti leafy art in the backyard.
Snake in Leaves Peachy Pink gives a soft yet playful feel while popping with vibrant colour. Imagine snakes gathering in the leaves, their beautiful colours and how they flow from one destination to the next.
The possibilities are truly endless with Dominique’s ‘Whimsical Nature’ collection. Our ideas above are suggestions only and we hope they’ve gotten your creative wheels turning! Each of Dominique’s designs can be found in our Fabric Shop online.
We’re currently booking print & make projects for the rest of 2023. That’s anything that you want delivered before our annual Christmas break or in January 2024.
As we move into September things start to amp-up here at Digital Fabrics HQ, so our production time can be a little longer than usual. If you are planning to print custom textile products, now is a good time to start the process.
Print your own!
- Event decor pieces for a product lunch, think cushions, wall hanging, backdrops, table linen.
- Festive-season retail stock, stock-up and get ready for the last few months of trading of 2023.
- Corporate gear and gifts that is not boring for your Christmas function or staff gifting.
- Unique gifts for family and Friends, don’t wait to start planning and getting creative.
Check out our handy video for inspiration and ideas on what products you create with Digital Fabrics 👇
At Digital Fabrics, we’ll be wrapping up operations on Friday, December 15th, 2023, and will be back in action to serve you on Monday, January 15th, 2023.
CUT-OFF DATES FOR ORDERS REQUIRING DELIVERY BEFORE CHRISTMAS
– Monday 20th November – Cut-off date for ‘Print & Make orders + delivery’ (depending on quantity). For WA, NT, FNQ, and any other remote destination, we recommend ordering earlier, as delivery times can be unpredictable this time of the year.
– Monday 11th December – Cut-off date for ‘Printing only orders + delivery’
CUT OFF DATES FOR ORDERS REQUIRING PICK-UP BEFORE CHRISTMAS
– Monday 4th December – Cut-off date for ‘Print & Make orders pick-up’ (depending on quantity)
– Monday 11th December – Cut-off date for ‘Printing only orders pick-up’
– Wednesday 13th December – Cut-off date for ‘Express Printing only orders pick-up’
– Don’t worry you still can order after the cut-off dates, however, orders submitted after 12th December are more likely to be printed and dispatched in the New Year unless it’s an express order.
– Any sample pack orders submitted after 14th December will be dispatched in the New Year after January 15th.
– From the 4th of December all orders will be dispatched via Express Post.
Contact us to place an order!
It’s been amazing sharing all of the wonderful designs by textile designer Diane Quee with you! We hope you’ve loved them just as much as we have. To coincide with Diane’s ‘Delightful Patterns’ collection being made available to all of our customers through our Fabric Shop online, the artist herself has put together a guest blog which further explains her self-taught design process, what inspires her designs as well as bit more about herself.
Keep reading to find out more!
Diane in her Studio
Hello, my name is Diane Quee, artist and designer. I’m so excited to be joining up with Digital Fabrics to bring you designs for you to create personal items with.
I am a freelance graphic designer who is passionate about designing logos and brand identity, drawing, painting and creating surface pattern designs. In my leisure time, I love to create artworks using different media such as pencils, oil, watercolour and pastel. Also, I am inspired by the works of other artists; for example, the impressionist painters and certain contemporary artists. Inspired by the beauty of nature, I experiment and create various pattern designs.
Eucalyptus Flower Sketches
My design process usually starts with doing sketches in my sketchbook. I am inspired by the colours, textures and patterns in nature and nature provides the trigger for my creative juices. For example, I would use a pen or pencil and watercolours to sketch flowers and trees that inspire me.
Dinosaur Design Sketches
After creating the sketches, I scan and convert them to digital files so that I can edit and manipulate them in Photoshop and Illustrator.
For vector repeat patterns, I create each individual design element first and then arrange them in a visually pleasing composition on the computer screen. I experiment with different colours and compositions to see what works best for the design elements.
Nature Inspiration
Often, I use a limited number of colours in each pattern so that the design is clean and cohesive.
Creating repeat patterns can be challenging, but it is also a satisfying experience when I see the design process coming together and the endless possibilities that the patterns can be used for. I would like my patterns to bring joy and happiness to people, as well as being versatile in its application. That is, the patterns can be used on a range of items from fabric to homeware products.
Summer and Spring Leaves Sketches
I hope you are inspired to bring some of my designs into your life! Be inspired. Be Creative.
Starfish and Shells Sketches
Starfish and Shells Sketches 2
If you want to collaborate with us on The Designer Project and become part of this creative club, please apply! Send us an email with your portfolio and why you would like to be part of this initiative, and we will be in touch!
For our latest installment of The Designer Project, we’ll be featuring the wonderful work of artist Diane Quee!
Diane is a freelance graphic designer, who is passionate about designing logos and brand identity, drawing, painting and creating surface pattern designs. In her leisure time, she loves to create artworks using different media such as pencils, oil, watercolour and pastel.
Her goal with her ‘Delightful Patterns’ collection is to create simple, fun, vibrant and versatile patterns that convey positive feelings to viewers.
What’s more fantastic is that the whole collection has been made available in our Fabric Shop online, meaning each of the designs can be printed onto any of our stock fabrics. Below we’ve shared a bit about each of the designs and the types of projects we think they’d be great for so keep reading!
‘Northern Territory Eucalyptus Flowers’ features Eucalyptus flowers and was inspired by Dianes trip to the Northern Territory a few years ago. The olive green background of the pattern reflects the colour of nature and ties in with the bright colours of the Eucalyptus flowers.
‘Northern Territory Eucalyptus Flowers’ would be super cute as a statement garment! A fun dress or pants? Perhaps a luscious long skirt!
‘Summer Leaves’ was inspired by the plants growing in Dianes back garden. The colour palette of lime green and aqua blue, symbolise the blue sky, swimming pools, bright green leaves and the heat in summer.
We think ‘Summer Leaves’ is the perfect design for any women’s fashion garments such a sweet summer dress
‘Spring Leaves’ is another design inspired by Dianes garden. It features a vibrant green and subtle pink which symbolise the wonderful start of new life during the season of Spring.
‘Spring Leaves’ is utterly perfect for any and all Home and Interior projects! Think Cushion Covers and Tea Towels.
‘Starfish and Shells’ is a fresh and relaxing print, full of blue, green and yellowish green shades that you always associate with the beach, the sea and objects found in this environment.
We think ‘Starfish and Shells’ would be amazing as a summer kaftan or sarong, perhaps some outdoor cushions by the pool.
‘Starfish and Shells 3’ features a wonderful colour palette of blue and green with a touch of orange that compliments the other colours beautifully. You can also see little patterns inside each motif that adds an extra element of texture to this design.
‘Starfish and Shells 3’ is the perfect print for any beach project! Think beach towels, beach bags or swimmers!
‘Dinosaurs’ is a funky multicoloured Dinosaur print, featuring orange, blue, pink and green. You can also see some black patterns on the inside of each dinosaur motif which really helps to make each one pop!
‘Dinosaurs’ is such a great print for kidswear projects, whether it be pyjamas and shirts or even a little custom pencil case!
The possibilities are truly endless with Diane’s ‘Delightful Patterns’ collection. Our ideas above are suggestions only and we hope they’ve gotten your creative wheels turning! Each of Diane’s designs can be found in our Fabric Shop online.
It’s been an absolute pleasure sharing these stunning prints by designer Julie Bunyard and we hope you have all enjoyed her designs as much as we have!
Julie is a freelance designer for print studio and fashion brands, working by hand in watercolours and gouache and digitally in Procreate. Her goal as an artist is to create prints that will make you feel good when you wear them, use them, or have them in your home! You might recognise her ‘Tasmanian Waratah‘ design from our lovely Cooper fabric samples as well! To coincide with Julie’s ‘For the Love of Australian Natives‘collection being made available to all of our customers through our Fabric Shop online, the artist herself has put together a guest blog which further explains her one of a kind approach to creating surface patterns and what inspires her work.
Keep reading to find out more about Julie Bunyard and her beautiful designs!
Julie Bunyard
Hi everyone I’m Julie, a surface pattern or print designer, designing under my own name Julie Bunyard Designs. I design freelance for several print studios around the world, which I love, but even though my designs are out there on homewares and garments, I rarely get to see them. Which is one reason why I’m thrilled to be a part of the Digital Fabrics Designer Project. You will be able to buy fabric with my designs printed on it, and I can’t wait to see what you make.
Julie’s Workspace
I live in Hobart; I can see the beach from the front of my house and at the back is the bush; I am surrounded by nature. I often pick flowers or leaves, gather shells, and take photographs on my daily walk, to use as inspiration for my designs.
Design Inspiration
But probably the biggest inspiration has been growing up in the 60s with a dressmaker for a mother. There was fabric everywhere in the house, cupboards full of fabric. Bought simply because it was beautiful, and we ‘might’ make something out of it one day. I no longer sew, but I still have boxes of beautiful fabrics and an addiction to searching Vinnies for vintage fabric scraps. Have you heard the saying ‘she who dies with the most fabric wins’, well that was us.
Leucadendron Paintings
Apart from my vintage fabric collection obsession, I also get great inspiration from design books, I love collecting them. And I can’t forget to mention two of my absolute favourite designers, Vera Neumann, and Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer, both women were inspirational designers and businesswomen.
Flowering Gum Paintings
I’ve been trying to narrow my style so it’s more consistent and cohesive, because I’ve been told that’s what I should do, but I struggle. I get distracted by wanting to try different techniques and materials. Recently I have been exploring working digitally with Procreate on the iPad. But if there is one thing that is a constant in my work, it’s colour. I love using colour and seeing the way it can change the feel of a design and how different colours work together.
Silver Dollar Gum Paintings
All the elements of For the Love of Australian Natives Collection started with me collecting plants from the bush around my house. Each plant was painted in water colour before the hand work was then scanned and opened in Photoshop where I created a layout and decided on final colours. The thing I love about working with watercolours, is when the colours bleed into each other creating new colours and gorgeous rich blooms. You will see this technique used in the Collection.
Design Work in Progress
I spent over 30 years working in a tonne of different jobs before I stumbled upon surface pattern design and realised that it was what I wanted to do. It makes me happy, and my hope is that my designs make their users happy as well.
To follow my design journey, follow me on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/juliebunyard_designs/
Julie’s Workspace Moodboard
If you want to collaborate with us on The Designer Project and become part of this creative club, please apply! Send us an email with your portfolio and why you would like to be part of this initiative, and we will be in touch!
It’s come that time again to introduce our newest featured artist of The Designer Project…introducing the wonderful Julie Bunyard and her textile collection ‘For the Love of Australian Natives’!
‘For the Love of Australian Natives‘ is a colourful mix of Australian native plants painted in watercolours. Suitable for a range of textiles and products, from garments to homewares. Some of the designs such as the ‘Silver Dollar Gum‘ and ‘Tasmanian Waratah‘ feature mesmerizing watercolour blends and bleeds, creating interesting colour blends. While others such as ‘Pink Leaves‘ is more stylised and monochromatic. It is the vibrant colours in this collection which are the standout feature and sure to bring a sense of style and luxury to any project!
All of Julie’s beautiful designs can be printed onto any of our fabrics, which means you can order custom designer fabric that’s tailored to you. Below we’ve shared a bit about each of the designs and the types of projects we think they’d be great for so keep reading!
‘Flowering Gum’ is a stunning, bright, watercolour design in pinks, purples, blues, and greens, on a crisp white background. It features an Aussie favourite, the Flowering Gum!
We think ‘Flowering Gum’ is the perfect design for any women’s fashion garments such a sweet summer dress
‘Silver Dollar Gum’ is an elegant hand painted watercolour design featuring the classic Eucalyptus leaf. It’s full of rich blues, greens, and a touch of yellow.
‘Silver Dollar Gum’ would look incredible as some fashion accessories such as Tote Bags!
‘Tasmanian Waratah’ is a fun and vibrant design in tones of rust, red, green and a hint of blue. We love the hand painted watercolour Waratah flowers! It has us thinking of our Waratah fabric.
‘Tasmanian Waratah’ is utterly perfect for any and all Home and Interior projects! Think Cushion Covers and Tea Towels.
‘Leucadendron’ features watercolour motifs of the Leucadendron plant in bright shades of pinks, purples and reds and brings a fun twist to the classic Leucadendron. The white background really makes those colours pop!
We think ‘Leucadendron’ would be fabulous for fashion accessories! We’re thinking Makeup Bags and Pouches, Tote Bags and Scarves of course!
‘Pink Leaves’ is a crisp design of pink leaf illustrations against a white background. The watercolour texture of the leaves really brings life to this design.
‘Pink Leaves’ would be super cute as a statement garment! A fun dress or pants? Perhaps a luscious long skirt!
‘Wattle’ is a loose hand painted watercolour design featuring our beloved Wattle in it’s classic shades of green and yellow, with just a hint of pink. That bright vibrant yellow always brings some colour to our Australian Winter.
‘Wattle’ would be the perfect addition to your home! Whether it be on some lovely Cushions, Tea Towels or maybe even Curtains!
‘Blue Native Flower’ features the most stunning bold blue tones that really bring an extra something to this design! It pairs well with the hand painted watercolour details throughout the floral motifs.
‘Blue Native Flower’ would look great on a range of products from leggings to homewares!
The possibilities are truly endless with Julie’s ‘For the Love of Australian Natives’ collection. Our ideas above are suggestions only and we hope they’ve gotten your creative wheels turning! Each of Julie’s designs can be found in our Fabric Shop online.
We’ve absolutely adored sharing the beautifully detailed work of Sydney-based designer Aiai Zhang and hope you’ve loved her designs as much as we have! Aiai’s designs are inspired by the harvest season where the leaves turn orange and yellow while fruits grow ripe and juicy. To coincide with Aiai’s “Orange Harvest” collection being made available to all of our customers through our Fabric Shop online, the artist herself has put together a guest blog which we’ve shared below! The blog takes a closer look at Aiai’s creative process, detailing every step from initial sketch to final design. The blog also includes gorgeous photographs and process images which really help tell the story of Aiai’s work and the “Orange Harvest” collection. Keep reading to find out more about Aiai Zhang and her stunning designs!
Aiai Zhang
Hi everyone! Aiai here from @breezybirdstudio. I’m very excited to let you know my Orange Harvest collection is now up on the Digital Fabrics shop. You can choose any of these designs to print on a variety of fabrics for your next sewing project, whether it be a garment or homeware decor, we can’t wait to see what you make!
Now you might be curious to know how this all began. Well, nature provides the biggest source of inspiration for everything I create. Travelling to new places definitely helps keep the creative juices flowing. However, most of the time I gather ideas from little things in everyday life. It can be a blooming flower in the garden, unusual patterns on the trees, shrubs waving in the breeze or a cute animal running through the neighbourhood. When I intentionally look for ideas, they seem to appear everywhere.
Mood Board for Collection
An inspiration board provides a reference point for the entire collection. It helps pull together all the ideas swirling in my head. This is why I have a habit of taking and collecting random images that stand out to me in my surroundings or online. Once I decide on what elements to use, I move onto the most enjoyable part of the process – painting up motifs and choosing a colour palette!
Floral Watercolour Painting
My favourite mediums to use are watercolour and gouache. I paint each element in various forms. The image on the left is an example of the original scan of “earthy bouquet” & “earthy bouquet blue”. I then clean and edit the artwork in photoshop and turn it into seamless repeats. Because of the variety of forms and values within this large motif, I created two prints from it with two colour ways. It is definitely the most versatile print out of this collection that is suitable for both fashion and Interiors.
Here are examples of how “Earthy Bouquet” and “Earthy Bouquet Blue” would look like on children’s PJ sets. Which one do you like more? Get in touch with the team at Digital Fabrics to chat about printing base fabric options that are available for your sewing DIY project.
Earthy Bouquet Floral Mockup
Earthy Bouquet Floral Mockup
Now let’s look at another print from its original form. “Orange Bouquet” was inspired by the ripe and juicy oranges bursting with colours from the harvest season. I used my favourite earthy tones to paint this design, such as flesh tint, yellow ochre, permanent rose and burnt amber. I then took it to the computer, cleaned it up and turned it into a seamless repeat.
Watercolour Oranges
Watercolour Stripes
Below is the final print “oranges on stripes” looks like after digital adjustments. The second colour way with a blue background creates a lovely contrast against the foreground. This design is to celebrate the earthy colours and shapes from nature. I hope you love it as much as I do!
Oranges on Stripes Blue
Oranges on Stripes Pink
So, all the magic happens here – my home studio! This is where I emerge myself into creativity. I absolutely love experimenting with colour palettes. From soft subtle tones to happy bright colours, I love to incorporate them to express different feelings in my designs.
Aiai’s Studio Space
Thank you for reading this far! Having a great idea of an upcoming project that you can use one of my designs for? Please check them out via my Digital Fabric online shop.
We can’t wait to see what you make! Please tag both Digital Fabric & myself in any crafty projects you undertake with this collection of fabrics. If you would love to follow my creative journey, I can be found via Instagram and Facebook. See you there! Warmest regards, Aiai
Oranges Bouquet and Floral Ditsy Orange Gingham
If you want to collaborate with us on The Designer Project and become part of this creative club, please apply! Send us an email with your portfolio and why you would like to be part of this initiative, and we will be in touch!
For our latest installment of The Designer Project, we’ll be featuring the work of artist Aiai Zhang from Breezy Bird Studio!
Aiai’s ‘Orange Harvest’ collection is inspired by the harvest season where leaves turn orange and yellow while fruits grow ripe and juicy. There’s so many earthy colours shining through this season with beautiful rich golden hues of yellow, orange and amber.
What’s more fantastic is that the whole collection has been made available in our Fabric Shop online, meaning each of the designs can be printed onto any of our stock fabrics. Below we’ve shared a bit about each of the designs and the types of projects we think they’d be great for so keep reading!
‘Oranges Bouquet / Oranges Bouquet Navy’ is the hero print of the collection with a packed layout of hand-painted elements of oranges and florals. It communicates movement, depth and gives the viewer an overview of the entire collection. This print comes in two colour ways with a cream or navy blue background.
‘Earthy Bouquet / Earthy Bouquet Blue’ is one of the coordinate prints of the collection with a centred floral bouquet repeated in an all-direction layout. This print comes in two colour ways with a mustard yellow or aqua blue background.
These are the sweetest designs for fashion projects, we’re thinking long flowing dresses and skirts!
‘Oranges on Stripes Pink / Oranges on Stripes Blue’ is the other coordinate print of the collection with hand-painted oranges in a tossed layout. This print comes in two colour ways with a pink or blue background.
Both of these designs would look super cute as some cozy pyjama sets or a lovely linen beach outfit! Maybe even a warm jumper for the winter season!
‘Floral Ditsy / Floral Ditsy Navy’ is one of the blender prints of the collection with small florals in an up and down layout with lots of negative space. This print comes in two colour ways with a cream or navy blue background.
We would love to see these print as some sweet homewares, think bed sheets, blankets and pillow cases!
‘Orange Gingham / Blue Gingham’ is the other blender print of the collection with classic check patterns in a painterly style. This print comes in two colour ways (orange and blue).
This is such a classic print that would be perfect for both Fashion and Home & Interior type projects. Perhaps a pair of fun pants or a set of cute tea towels?
The possibilities are truly endless with Aiai’s ‘Orange Harvest’ collection. Our ideas above are suggestions only and we hope they’ve gotten your creative wheels turning! Each of Aiai’s designs can be found in our Fabric Shop online.
It’s been amazing sharing all of the wonderful designs by textile designer Kathrin Legg with you! We hope you’ve loved them just as much as we have. To coincide with Kathrin’s ‘Nostalgic Florals’ collection being made available to all of our customers through our Fabric Shop online, the artist herself has put together a guest blog which further explains her self-taught design process, what inspires her designs as well as bit more about herself.
Keep reading to find out more!
‘Kathrin Legg’
Hello! My name is Kathrin Legg. I am a Surface Pattern Designer from Newcastle, NSW.
I completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Newcastle and I have a background in Art Teaching. These days I work from my sunny studio for global companies in the fabric, greeting card, stationery, homewares and tech industries.
‘Retro Florals Textile Design’
When I start with a new brief for clients I firstly think of the colour scheme, the audience I am designing for plus the end product. Then I focus on the motifs and layout of the pattern or stand alone illustration.
I love traditional art supplies, the calming sense of using watercolour paints and the smooth texture of layering acrylics but most days I use digital mediums to create my designs and patterns. I draw all of the motifs in procreate and then create the final seamless repeat pattern in photoshop.
‘Kathrin’s Watercolours’
My favourite design theme is florals and I gather my inspiration from the native flowers in my backyard as well as international flora from my European heritage. My other illustration passion is drawing intricate and engaging designs for the baby and children’s market.
‘The Simple Life sketches’
I am always inspired and amazed by the creative community out there and the ways in which they use my fabric designs. If you are a sewing enthusiast and would like to share your amazing creations using one of my designs, tag Digital Fabrics and me in your Instagram post, I can’t wait to see what you make!
‘Design work in progress’
If you want to collaborate with us on The Designer Project and become part of this creative club, please apply! Send us an email with your portfolio and why you would like to be part of this initiative, and we will be in touch!