Tag Archives: design your own fabric

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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DIY Poncho Sweater | DIY with Digital Fabrics

If you’re looking to update your Fall wardrobe, Jocy from Pink Chocolate Break created a DIY Poncho Sweater that you can easily make at home! When it gets colder she loves working with thicker fabrics such as fleece fabric and for this DIY project she used the fabric she designed and printed with Digital Fabrics. You can shop the african print fleece fabric she used here.
What you’ll need:
– 2 yards/meters of fleece fabric
– pins
– fabric scissors
– thread
– sewing machine

#printsinfashion | Flower Print Trend

prints in fashion floral print fabrics 1

Photo credit: Vogue

You an never go wrong with floral prints and according to Michael Kors’ Spring 17 Ready-to-Wear collection, this print is definitely in fashion!

Bold Rose Midnight Purple Fabric

Tea Rose Fabric

Tulip Time Fabric

Use it to to create a beautiful dress like Eryn from Style Sew Me, a pleated bodice circle skirt dress like Oaishe or a chic Spring jacket like Jocy from Pink Chocolate Break. The possibilities are endless and Digital Fabrics likes to bring your creative ideas to life!

Get inspired with these floral print fabrics and shop the floral print trend in the Digital Fabrics shop. All our products are 100% Printed and made in Australia.

Bold Rose Midnight Purple Fabric

Open Bloom Fabric

Summer Floral Fabric

Spring Flower Print Fabric

Tea Rose Fabric

Orchids Fabric

How to prepare a layout 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 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 a layout/mark up legging pattern for fabric printing in Photoshop

Once you’ve completed the steps in the tutorial ‘How to use legging pattern in Photoshop’ You may want to print more than 1 design or more than 1 size, the most economic way to do this is to create a mark up/placement layout to have printed.

The following are instructions on how to set up in Photoshop, but could easily be done in Illustrator.

Start off by renaming the pattern layers to insure that you always have a pair of leggings.

If you are only wanting the same size with different designs you can just Duplicate the leg layers. If you’d like to bring in different sizes you will need to repeat the steps in ‘How to use legging pattern in Photoshop’

In this tutorial we will be using the same size 10 but printing in new designs.

On the same artboard move files to the left hand side. you will notice that you can only comfortable fit 1 pair within the 147cm width with the current orientation; however there is a lot of wastage as illustrator below.

Like a Jigsaw puzzle you will now need to start moving the patterns, you will need to make sure that you keep in mind that your grain line is parallel to the selvage. To do this, select the leg you’d like to rotate (select both layers) press Ctrl+t to open up the transform tool and while holding down shift rotate the image 360′ and make sure to move the pattern piece as close as possible to other leg (zoom in to make sure it is not overlapping)

You can now start bringing in the other size 10 designs and play around with the layout. It’s best that you make the art board slightly longer than needed and once you’ve set up all the designs crop the excess.

Make sure you zoom in and double check that you haven’t overlapped any areas, when you are happy with the layout save as a JPG, TIFF or PDF.

You’re now on your way to have custom printed fabric which you will be able to make into comfy leggings.

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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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DIY Bean Bag | DIY with Digital Fabrics

Elba from Live Colorful created another colorful & creative DIY tutorial: a DIY Bean Bag. For this she used the Cheery fabric she designed and which is available in our fabric shop. Did you know that printing fabrics with us is super easy? Create your design, Upload and pay, Receive your fabric!

From DIY clothes to DIY Home Decor, our mission at Digital Fabrics is to help you to bring your creativity and your amazing ideas to life!

Elba got the inspiration for her DIY project from Pinterest, but added some fun curves to make it look more organic.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

2 meters of heavyweight fabric. Waratah drill (147 cm wide). Design: Cheery.
2 packs of bean bag chair refill (100 Liter refill bags)
Sewing machine
Thread
Scissors
Pins

Designing Fabric: How To Make A Repeat Pattern – Full Drop repeat in Photoshop

For this tutorial we have choose Full Drop pattern repeat. It is not an advanced technic, mostly for those who is not very proficient in Photoshop yet like to be creative and play. This fabric pattern repeat tutorial mainly suitable for photographic and abstract images.

Full Drop repeat in Photoshop

Full Drop Repeats can also be referred to as Square repeat.

Open your artwork file in Photoshop. It’s always a good idea to check the resolution quality before beginning, a minimum of 150 dpi is recommended. Crop/alter the image as desired till you are happy with an artwork that will be tiled to repeat seamlessly.

Original image – all four corners of image are relatively different and this is what will need to be fixed to create a seamless repeat.

Original image with no fixing of the seams, looks mismatched.

Take note of the pixel size of your image (Image – Image Size)

As well as HALF this amount. An easy way to do this is let the computer decide, halve the resolution amount (150 dpi in this case), and re-note the new pixel dimensions. Click cancel as you don’t want to actually change the resolution, just take note of it.

Now cut (OFFSET) the image in half both length and width ways. This will give the edges or seams that need to be fixed for seamless repeating. It is ideal to do this step with a flattened layer. (Filter – Other – Offset) Now put in the HALVED horizontal and vertical values determined in step 2 and make sure that Wrap Around is selected. Click OK.

It is clear to see where the image needs to be fixed to create a seamless repeat, where no harsh contrasting lines can be seen as in the above image. There are several tools to use in photoshop that you can use to do this including (but not limited to) stamp, blur, patch, clone…enjoy the play!

It is a good idea to offset the now fixed image, just to check the four points that you haven’t missed anything and nothing is looking odd.

This now forms your Repeat Tile and this is the tile/image that is required when sending artwork to a printer or uploading it for fabric printing online.

SAVE! Save file as (Artwork Name)_Repeat Tile
You must now check your repeat and to see it duplicated across the width and down the length of your fabric. An easy way to do so is to define your reworked artwork as a pattern. Menu>Edit>Define Pattern>Save as preferred name.
Open a new blank document with a set up reflecting something similar to a roll of fabric i.e. 145 x 100 cm depending on you repeat tile dimensions.
Menu>Edit>Fill>Select your saved pattern from the drop down box>OK

(shown below is only 50 x 50 cm)

Now you can use your repeat pattern or repeat tile for digital custom fabric printing.

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Designing Fabric: How To Make A Repeat Pattern – Mirror Repeat Tutorial in Photoshop

Mirror repeat technic is one of the easiest way to make a repeat pattern with any digital image, photographs, graphic artwork or painting. Mirror repeat creates an interesting effect, simple and quick, doesn’t require great Photoshop skills. To design your own fabric you can either use our Photoshop tutorial or Fabric Uploader with an instant Mirror repeat option.

Mirror Repeat Tutorial in Photoshop

Open your artwork in Photoshop, make any adjustments to the dimensions (width/height) at this stage.

Double click (press OK) the background layer in your layers panel so it is no longer locked.

Increase your artboard size, go to Menu > Image > Canvas Size > double the width of the canvas size making sure to click the left arrow so the increase only happens to one side.

Now duplicate the original layer by clicking and dragging it to the second from the right icon at the base of the layers panel.

With the duplicated layer selected go to Menu>Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontally>OK. Drag the flipped layer across (holding down SHIFT key) so the layer slots into place in line with the original layer. Make sure to zoom into mirroed join beetwin the images to double check that no pixels are out. Merge layers by sellecting them both, right click and choose Merger Layers option.

Repeat this step again, but mirroring the length/height of the image. When you transform the duplicated layer, make sure to flip VERTICALLY before dragging into place.

Flatten the layers, right click on one of the layers, select Flatten Image option. This is now your mirrored repeat tile that repeats
seamlessly on all four sides! Now you can use your design for digital custom fabric printing.

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DIY Connie Dress Sew along w/ Style Sew Me | DIY with Digital Fabrics

Getting beautiful fabric is just the beginning because what will you make with it once you receive it? Eryn from Style Sew Me created a gorgeous DIY dress using Digital Fabrics Bold Rose Midnight Purple fabric. Our mission at Digital Fabrics is to help you to bring your creativity and your amazing ideas to life!

To sew the dress she used her Connie Dress pattern which you can purchase through her site. And shop the Bold Rose Midnight Purple fabric and more in the Digital Fabrics shop.

See how you can DIY this look here

#printsinfashion | Back To School Stripes & Plaid

prints in fashion back to school plaid fabric stripe fabric 1

Photo credit: Elle

If you attended an all uniform school, the upcoming season will bring sweet memories. Schoolgirl jumpers are one of the hottest Fall Winter 2016 trends and what better way to express it than with striped and plaid fabrics?

The beauty of uniforms is that you don’t need to think about what you wear and you simply put it on. And with so many young students going back to school (or soon), creating your a uniform with a unique plaid or striped fabric can be a stylish way to combine book smarts with fashion.

Get inspired with these plaid and striped fabrics. All our products are 100% Printed and made in Australia.

Plaid fun in Yellow fabric