Tag Archives: custom made fabric

Simple Repeat Pattern Tutorial For Beginners

It would be safe to say that most of us are creative, we might love to doodle, paint, and create collages. Whilst these are all wonderful and inventive practices, what if you wanted to start developing these crafts into textile designs but didn’t have the digital design software skills to get your file prepared for fabric printing. What we would say is “learn it’! Learn digital textile design in small bites. Start slowly, from converting your art into a digital format and getting to know basic Photoshop tools. Everything new can be overwhelming, but if you take one step at a time and slowly build your confidence, you will get the hang of it in no time. Below are some simple steps that will help you prepare your art for digital seamless repeat printing.

DIGITIZING – CONVERTING YOUR ART INTO A DIGITAL FORMAT

Start with an artwork painted onto a flat, one colour background that surrounds the artwork. For this tutorial we used a simple white plain background for the purpose of being easy, but any colour is fine.

To convert your artwork into a digital format you need to scan or photograph the artwork. Scanning at a resolution of 300 dpi is preferred. However, if you don’t have a scanner, photograph your artwork laid out flat, indoors with plenty of light (natural day light if best), holding the camera directly above the artwork, making sure there are no shadows of any kind interfering with the artwork.

CLEANING – DELETING UNWANTED ELEMENTS FROM AN ARTWORK

Open your artwork in Photoshop by selecting MAIN MENU > FILE > OPEN > CHOOSE YOUR ARTWORK FILE.

Using MARQUEE TOOL select the object or image that you want to repeat.

Now let’s bring the artwork or image that you want to repeat into a new document so you can start playing with it. While MARQUEE TOOL selection is active, (this will appear as ants running around the selected area) go to MAIN MENU > EDIT > COPY to copy selected area and FILE > NEW to open new document. NOTE: Photoshop is a very smart software. The area that you have selected will now determine the file size of the new document being opened. Click OK.

Whilst in the newly opened document select MAIN MENU > EDIT> PASTE to bring your selected artwork into the new document. It should paste by default in the middle of the new document fitting artwork well within the new document space. Nothing should be cropped out or hidden from view.

Now to clean your artwork. If your white background is slightly messy or the texture of the paper is visible, you will need to clean this up, since whatever you see on the screen will be printed onto fabric. To quickly ‘deep-etch’ or in other words ‘clean-up’, select the layer that you just brought in. Then select the MAGIC WAND TOOL. Change the tolerance to low (we selected a tolerance measure of ‘4’ but you might need to adjust this number as it is based on your artwork). Tolerance is the rate at which the same or similar colours are selected when using the MAGIC WAND TOOL. The higher the tolerance the more of that colour will be found and therefore selected within the artwork.

Make sure the CONTIGUOUS box is ticked, this will ensure that only space around your artwork is being selected, and not that which is inside or a part of the drawn objects. Now once everything is prepared for selection click on the white background to select it. You can see on the image below that only the white background area is selected. While it is selected hit the DELETE button on your keyboard. This will remove the white selected background.

As you can see there is a little bit of another flower peaking through on the left side. Lets clean this up by using the simple ERASER TOOL. You can adjust the size of the eraser as needed at the top left of the screen. You can make the background layer invisible (this will then appear as little white and grey squares as seen below) to check that you have cleaned up all of the image. Simply zoom in to check the edges of your artwork and any potential unwanted marks left behind.

ADJUSTING COLOURS

The image is now clean, but colour wise the artwork is not strong enough. To brighten and intensify the colours of the image select MAIN MENU > IMAGE > AUTO CONTRAST.

You are almost done! To flatten your image select MAIN MENU > LAYER > FLATTEN IMAGE. All layers have now merged into one. Save the image as a JPG high quality file MAIN MENU > FILE > SAVE AS > SAVE.

Now you are done and ready to upload your file to print on to a fabric of your choice!

REPEATING A PATTERN USING OUR FABRIC UPLOADER

Open the Fabric Uploader page.

Drag & Drop your image or click on the SELECT button to upload your ready to print artwork. Once your file is uploaded, you’ll be able to see it in the fabric preview window. You can scale your artwork up or down, simply by typing in and adjusting the artwork to the size you want. Keep an eye on the DPI! This is the resolution and quality of your file. If your artwork is low resolution and is scaled up, the print result can be blurry.

Next step is to choose your Repeat type. This is the fun part! Play around with the different options and see how the variations impact your artwork in the preview window. Compare how the different options distribute your artwork across the width and the length of the fabric. Pick the one that suits your design idea best!

FULL DROP REPEAT

MIRROR REPEAT

Choose how many meters you wish to print simply by typing it into the quantity box and then select the fabric you want to print on. Remember that each fabric stock has a different width so be sure to check that the fabric you choose meets your needs.

P.S. This tutorial is designed to be very basic. If you are still struggling to prepare your artwork files, we recommend you attend one of the workshops on offer at our Digital Textile Design School to help you nail those Photoshop basics!

Check your artwork repeats seamlessly with Offset Filter in Photoshop.

Open your file in Photoshop. Main menu > File > Open
Check size of your image. Main menu > Image > Image size. Take note of the pixel dimension (PX) at the full resolution size.

Change the resolution to half of its value and take note of the changed pixel dimension. Keep these numbers handy as you will need them to offset your artwork. Don’t click OK at this stage, as you don’t want to change the resolution size, you only need the pixel information.

Once you have pixel dimensions noted you can offset and check your file for seamless repeat. Go to Main menu > Filter > Other > Offset. In the open box enter that half pixel values that you have noted down. Select option Wrap Around and tick the Preview option, so you can preview what is happening to your artwork. The side edges of the artwork will now be visible in the middle and the middle will become the sides. In other words the artworks sides got folded into the middle.

If your artwork in not in seamless repeat, you will see it in the middle of your artwork, through vertically and horizontally missed joins and miss matched lines. In some artwork this will not be obvious and you will need to zoom right in to the joining pixels to spot the issue.

When your artwork repeats seamlessly, there is no miss matched lines and elements of the artwork flows seamlessly.

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If you are at the beginning of your textile and surface design journey you might want to consider our workshops and classes on offer or continue learning more online through our available tutorials.

Holiday Break

This year Digital Fabrics will be closed on 22rd of December and re-opened on 8th of January with a skeleton staff, production commencing on the 15th January 2018.

How about if you still want to order fabric? Don’t worry, we will be accepting all online orders during holiday to be printed when we are back in action in 2018.

After the holiday first orders will be due to dispatch on Wednesday the 17th January.

Stay smart during pre-holiday rush, don’t rely on couriers services, they are busy! If possible, arrange a pick-up of your order from our Marrickville studio, we will be happy to say Hi.

CREATE YOUR OWN FABRIC CREATE YOUR OWN CUSHION COVER

To avoid pre-holiday stress and to receive your fabric before Christmas please note super important dates below:

Cut off times, if you require shipping

· 4th December – for Print and Make orders such as cushion covers, banners, scarves etc

· 11th December – All fabric printing orders that needs to be shipped and delivered before holiday. As much as we would love to, we cannot guarantee that orders submitted after this date will reach to you on time before Christmas.

· 12th December – last Express order for fabric printing or Print and Make orders

Orders for delivery, submitted after 15th December more likely to be printed and dispatched in New Year unless it’s an express order.

Pick-up orders cut off time

· 11th December Print and Make orders such as cushion covers, banners, scarves etc

· 15th December fabric printing orders

· 18th December last express order for fabric printing or Print and Make orders.

3 pm is our daily production cut off time, which means, if you placed an order after 3 pm, your order will be rolled over to the next day. Be that just an extra little careful when planning your fabric printing orders.

And as always, if you have any question, we are only a phone call away.

CREATE YOUR OWN FABRIC CREATE YOUR OWN CUSHION COVER

Palm Springs Competition Winner

Thank you to everyone who entered our ‘Palm Springs’ design competition, we had so many great entries and loved all the different design styles and mediums used to create them. It was a difficult decision choosing the winners but we are happy to announce them today!

The top Ten were chosen by you the public :

The team at DF have chosen the following designs as the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd prize winners:

1st Prize goes to Tyago BK – This design was inspired by photographs taken of Palm Springs landscape and architecture.

2nd Prize goes to Sandra K Stewart – This design was inspired by it’s shopping district, vintage boutiques and fashionista vibe including the Coachella festival.

3^rd Prize goes to Lang Matkovic – This design was inspired by a pastel coloured palette and the palms of palm springs.

The prizes are as follows:

Tyago BK

1st Prize $250 worth of custom printing and a 45cm x 45cm cushion with the winning design artwork on it.

Sandra K Stewart

2nd Prize $100 of custom printing and a 45cm x 45cm cushion with the winning design artwork on it.

Lang Matkovic

3^rd Prize $50 worth of custom printing and a 45cm x45cm cushion with the winning design artwork on it.

Thank you to everyone who entered, we are always blown away by the talent in the designs. We shall of course do another one next year so keep your eyes peeled.

Stay creative!

DF team.

Snippets: Chats With Creatives – Series 1, Snippet 6

Snippets’. Chats with Creatives. Here at Digital Fabrics we love everything print, pattern and colour and we love to know what makes designers tick. This series is all about asking some fun and different questions and learning about the inspirations and ideas behind the artist and their work. We hope to inspire others by sharing snippets of these creative stories. We gave the artists and designers featured a varied list of questions to choose from so we will learn something new from everyone involved, should be fun!

Today on Snippet’s we are talking to Margot Warre from Margot Design, a Sydney based Textile artist and designer with a passion for supporting Local and Ethical Production.

Tell us a bit about yourself and what your creative practice is, how and when you began:

Creative practice for me is all about telling a story through my designs. That story will be carried all the way through the complete integrity of the design – where the designs are printed, finishing style and packaging.

I want to tell stories about the city I love. When I first started designing it was all about the trends in NY, London etc which didn’t resonate with me. I felt that my country and city is so unique that we didn’t have to look to others for inspiration it is all around us. Inspiration and stories such as uniqueness of Sydney summer, the beach on a winters day and more recently the beautiful Art Deco buildings all over Sydney.

After I have the realised the story – I start researching images, sketching, painting patterns sometimes in gauche, water colour, texta, collecting scraps of fabrics, paper – a real mixture of process, never are two collections developed the same way.

The sketches are scanned and then played with in illustrator and photoshop to create the designs digitally. I started designing my own range of textiles after years of designing for some of the industry leaders, such as Warwick Fabrics. I moved back to Sydney after living in Melbourne and began my own ranges.

Which part of the creative process is your favourite and why?

Putting a concept / mood boards together, sourcing images that communicate your idea and colour palette. I could look for images for hours.

Which five words best describe you?

I have been told and don’t disagree: Energetic, Fun, Personable.

How would you describe your work, and what influences your style?

It has a very distinctive style, it not pretty style but handsome and I would hope reflects how we live in Australia.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I am up early and generally do most of my work after a morning workout before heading to my “day” job.

What would your dream creative project look like?

I would love to work on a full collection of prints, weaves, knits, embroideries all made here in Australia and then work with an amazing photographer to shoot the collection.

Which other Australian designers, artists or creative people are you enjoying at the moment?

Loving what the Mirador team are doing with their textiles and knits

What has been your proudest achievement to date, creative or otherwise?

That changes, I had so many amazing moments working with Mokum and Warwick, travelling to international mills and textile trade fairs. But I do get a huge buzz when someone buys one of my designs.

If you could spend a day in another artist’s studio shoes who would that artist be?

Ahhhh that is SO hard – Sonia Dealunay

In another life what natural talent would you wish for?

I would love to be a dancer….. Another way of using my energy and being creative

If you could only use one colour in your work what would it be?

PINK! And all is shades.

Love your Locals:

City/Town/Village where you currently reside:

Sydney

Favourite spot for a bite:

Love Supreme, Oxford Street

Secret Inspirational spot:

Swims at Bronte pool on a winters day

You can follow what Margot is upto: Website, Instagram, Facebook

Snippets: Chats With Creatives – Series 1, Snippet 3

Today on Snippet’s we are talking to Darren Church, graphic designer behind ‘Raw Inc’ a street design division based in Australia. Inspired by graffiti and street culture they design and create unique apparel, cushions and accessories.

The Snippety Snips:

Tell us a bit about yourself and what your creative practice is, how and when you began:

I’m currently based out in Penrith in Sydney’s lower Blue Mountains, but personally I enjoy the days out into the city and other areas I have to go, walking between stores and checking out what’s new on the streets in the graffiti scene catching up with shop owners.

How would you describe your work, and what influences your style?

I base 99% of our designs around graffiti and the classic sneaker culture, and we’re all about bold clean lines with fresh colours, using illustrations and different elements in photographs to create for that next cushion design. It’s our little niche and very different to what is out there in the industry.

We find people can relate to our different types of cushions, by bringing out what they grew up with a twist and purely for the love of the novelty of the item. We get contacted all the time by paint companies asking when are we going to do a cushion of their design.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Always finding myself sketching up new designs and redrawing artwork ready for print for clients. And always hunting around Sydney fabric stores to find that perfect fabric to match artwork being printed. Cutting and sewing up fabric for those store orders.

It does get chaotic sometimes and a little stressful but very satisfying and it’s worth it in the end to see people loving the products.

What has been your proudest achievement to date, creative or otherwise?

After many years of Managing retail stores here in Sydney and while living in the UK for 10 years, I got to the point of having enough and had to do something I enjoyed. So I studied Diploma in Graphic Design and a quick 12 month course in Screen Printing and realized I had so much to artwork and ideas I could do.

Now I have people coming up to me here in Sydney and in other states, that don’t even know me and treat me with a lot of respect. When we get emails weekly from European and US stores asking for order forms, it makes your day.

Tell us something people may not know about you

I’ve been doing graffiti since the late 80’s and I like to combine the elements and influences into my work and whilst living in the UK I studied fashion and design for 2 years. It really opens up your eyes to how things are designed and so easily produced.

Love your Locals:

City/Town/Village where you currently reside:

Sydney West

Favourite spot for a bite:

I don’t really have a favourite food spot, I like to try new things all the time and sometimes catch up with friends for lunch or drinks and talk about new projects and ideas.

Secret Inspirational spot:

I’m always out and about in the city. I like to walk around the city and look at all the different graffiti, art, stickers, advertisements and t-shirts people wear, I carry around a little sketch book and I’m always stopping and sit down somewhere doodling ideas down.

You can follow what Darren is upto: Website, Instagram, Facebook

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Colourful Bunch by Sharon Wilson

Not going to lie it’s very nice getting sweet notes of appreciation from our customers, but more than anything we love receiving photos of makes and completed projects. We just love seeing what fabrics that we have printed has become. Sharon Wilson surprised us recently with images of her amazing colourful creations, box pleated skirt & boxer shorts, she used her photo to create this beautiful floral fabric. Her honest feedback and tips and tricks on working with Aerocorp fabric are truly appreciated and we are sure will be really helpful and inspiring to other sewers. Here is what Sharon wrote:

About 7 years ago I took a digital photo of this colourful bunch of flowers in Switzerland. After seeing what Digital Fabrics could offer with their range of fabric types, I couldn’t wait to order the Aerocorp fabric and make a knee length box pleated skirt with waist yoke. It turned out beautifully and there was even enough remnant to make a pair of boxer shorts .

I found the Aerocorp not difficult to work with. As the website said, it did have a soft handle and cotton look and feel, however it was resilient, as 100% polyester is, but with a good press, it is easy to tame into place or make a crisp line where necessary.
Aerocorp fabric has a tendency to unravel immediately after being cut. So don’t over handle it, and make sure that raw edges are tamed as soon as possible.
The skirt has a lovely drape and swing to it.
I probably would not make a top out of it unless it was for a cooler climate and a dressier look.
If the print is very busy (as this one was) you could even possibly get away with not ironing it – great for traveling.

The fabric order delivery was on time and well packed. Inside was also a sample pack which I really appreciated because sewers really need to feel a fabric to gain good judgement on what to use. I would definitely recommend this service and am tempted to order again some time in future.

If you are like Sharon have a creative project in mind and would like to print your own fabric, you can upload your design and start creating right away here.

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5 DIY Clothes for Christmas

The Holidays are the perfect moment to go all out when it comes to fashion. But if you truly want to have a unique look for Christmas, designing your fabric, DIY and sewing it the only way!

Design & order your custom made fabric HERE before December 9 to get it before Christmas. And if you’re looking for fashion inspiration for the Holidays, check out these 5 DIY festive dresses tutorials

How to make a special christmas dress

DIY Balmain 2015 Runway GOWN COLLECTION | BEGINNER LEVEL

DIY Holiday Fringe Dress | DIY Clothes

MY DIY | Gem Cotton Sweater & Holiday Dress

Sew With Me: Halter Dress with High Split

5 Prints for People Who Love Cats | #printsinfashion

Last week’s Halloween Print Fabric giveaway made us clear that you guys love cats! The cat print was the most chosen print which is why we wanted to delight you with more fun prints for people who love cats. And what’s not to love? Both in real life and on print, cats are beautiful to look at and bring a fun factor.

Below you’ll find cat prints inspiration but don’t stop here. Create a design inspired by your favorite animal and print it on fabric, pillows or leggings. The possibilities are endless and Digital Fabrics helps you bring your creative ideas to life!

1. Black & White Cat Prints

Source: Pattern Blog

2. Sanderson Cats

Source: Vicke Lindstrand

3. Black Cat Pattern

Source: Mia Mandarina

4. FREE Black Cat Halloween Print

5. For My Cat Ladies

Download it here

Design your own leggings – How to prepare legging pattern for fabric printing in Photoshop

Garment making and production can be daunting and a complicated process especially placement or engineered printing. A lot of time and effort goes into research and understanding where to start. We have put together tutorials on how to design, work with and prepare legging pattern for digital placement fabric printing. For this tutorial you need to be proficient in Photoshop and Illustrator or at least have basic knowlage. Our tutorial is based on industry standards. This technic can be applied to printing other products such as bikinis, t-shirts, singlets , dresses etc.

How to prepare legging pattern for fabric printing in Photoshop

Open the PDF file in Illustrator. You can purchase our digital leggings pattern on our website or use your own.

Copy and paste the size you would like to use within the same file, we have selected size 10.

Delete all details and notches within the pattern piece and select the pattern shape and fill in black.

while legging is selected copy and take note on the sizing.

Open Photoshop and select a new artboard, keep the pixels and resolution the same, just make sure you’ve selected RGB color mode. Click OK and Paste pattern piece as a smart object, click enter to place.

Double check that the sizing is correct by selecting Image>image size, in this case it is only a few points off which will be fine.

Next you’ll need to increase your artboard size to fit the other leg, change the width of your artboard to the width of the fabric you’d like to use and select the anchor points to extend from corner.

Copy Layer and while selected transform (Ctrl+t), while still selected right click on top of the layer and select Flip Horizontally, you know have a pair.

With both layers selected you will need to select transform again (ctrl+t) and while select cover over to rotate, when rotating make sure you hold down shift to make sure it rotates correctly.

Copy and paste the design you would like on your leggings and place layer on top of the one of the pattern legs.

Right click on the design layer and in the drop down menu select create clipping mask.

Repeat for other leg

Group all layers and centre.

Your file is now ready to print!

Soon you’ll have your printed fabric which you’ll be able to whip up into these comfy leggings

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Tag Archives: custom made fabric

Simple Repeat Pattern Tutorial For Beginners

Check your artwork repeats seamlessly with Offset Filter in Photoshop.

Holiday Break

Palm Springs Competition Winner

Snippets: Chats With Creatives – Series 1, Snippet 6

Snippets: Chats With Creatives – Series 1, Snippet 3

Colourful Bunch by Sharon Wilson

5 DIY Clothes for Christmas

5 Prints for People Who Love Cats | #printsinfashion

Design your own leggings – How to prepare legging pattern for fabric printing in Photoshop

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