Tag Archives: fabric printing

Snippets: Chats With Creatives – Series 1, Snippet 1

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 Shyanne Clark, the swimwear and textile designer behind ‘Printsea’ a print design brand who love to spread sparkle and magic and inspire others to do the same.

textile designer Shyanne Clark

The Snippety Snips:

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

I’ve been a textile fabric designer for the past 5 years. My style is very mermaidy and I love tropical florals, so my business PRINTSEA has naturally progressed to helping bikini designers find their signature style and launch beautiful labels.

I am such a cheerleader for people doing what they truly love, the things that make them all sparkly inside. I was always that kid that didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, I didn’t fit in one of the boxes. I think it’s because I didn’t know this job existed or how all my talents could come together to be something. I adore what I do so much and its always growing and changing me. I feel so grateful that I listened to my heart and followed its windy path, you learn so much along the way and I would love that for everyone. I get giddy just thinking about it.

At the moment I’m creating a signature range of beautiful hand designed, high vibrational pieces. There is such magic in colour and creativity. My hope is that each piece will add a little extra sparkle to your day and that owning a piece will feel like a precious treasure that brings you many heart swelling, quiet smiles and inspires your soul.

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Shyanne Clark PRINTSEA_digital fabrics_custom fabric_fabric printing 8

What would your dream creative project look like?

I’ve actually got a bit of a fascination with creating a print that would cover a whole aeroplane. Could you imagine a giant bunch of gorgeous flowers flying through the sky. Instant happiness I reckon. I wonder if Richard Branson would let me print wrap a Virgin plane for fun?

fabric design Shyanne Clarke PRINTSEA

In another life what natural talent would you wish for?

I’m pretty much tone deaf, sometimes I’ll sing + scare myself with how out of tune I am. I have always admired people that can make your heart swell with emotion from their singing voice. I’ve secretly wished that I could do this, but in saying that, I wouldn’t want to trade my talent of drawing flowers. Can I have two natural talents?

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

I absolutely love the moment when the inspiration strikes + your imagination goes all bright + sparkly. You can’t wait to birth this creation that’s swirling around inside. It’s just such a rush of ecstatic excitement. I love that part. The finished piece is pretty amazing too, but the journey is the best.

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

I adore Annie Everingham. Her paintings evoke so much feeling. They are so happy and beautiful. I could stare at their gorgeousness for hours.

Love your Locals:                                      

 City/Town/Village where you currently reside:

I live on the beautiful Sunshine Coast, some people say, it’s like what Byron Bay was 20 years ago.

Favourite spot for a bite:

There is a gorgeous cafe at Rosemount called ‘GURU Life.’ The brother sister team roast their own beans + it truly is enlightenment in every cup, they have delicious raw treats and the staff are super friendly.

Secret Inspirational spot:

Well if I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret! … I actually adore the Noosa National Park, it’s a stunning feast for your eyes and soul (and a good workout if you walk all 8kms.) On a great day you’ll see turtles, whales + koalas.

Shyanne Clarke PRINTSEA_digital fabrics_custom fabric_fabric printing 2

Feeling inspired by Printsea to start a swimwear brand? You can buy her E book here.  AND she is currently running a promo where you can purchase 1 print and get one for free with the code: PRINTME until August 17th, then you can print it onto lycra here at Digital Fabrics and start YOUR creative journey.

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You can follow what Printsea is upto:  Website, Instagram, Facebook.

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Colourful Bunch by Sharon Wilson

floral design Sharon WilsonNot 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 .

print your own fabric, make your own skirt, fabric printingmaking shorts, sewing project, make your own clothes

  • 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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GIVEAWAY! Win Halloween Print Fabrics/Leggings

halloween print fabric giveaway
WIN! Halloween is around the corner and we want to celebrate with this week’s giveaway! Digital Fabrics prints all sorts of designs on fabric so we wanted to celebrate with Halloween print fabrics and 2 lucky winners will get 1m! OR we will print the Halloween print on matt lycra with leggings shape so the winner only needs to cut and create it.

You probably have several ideas in mind but maybe you don’t know where to start as you never designed a print. Digital Fabrics helps you bring your creative ideas to life and this week we used Picmonkey to make it happen.

The Halloween print designs were created by Jocelina Paixão Fortes, the creative behind the sewing & travel channel Pink Chocolate Break and webshop Paixão Fortes. She created these fun & spooky prints with Picmonkey.

“Picmonkey is a great tool to create unique designs with as they have custom layers and visuals for every festive occasion from Halloween to Valentine’s Day. I used the edit option and choose the Halloween prints available and pasted it on a white canvas.”

Now join us on Facebook & Instagram and win 2m of Halloween Print fabrics! The winner will be announced on Wednesday!

If you don’t win, don’t worry as these Halloween print fabric designs will be available in the DF fabric shop for purchase.

Good luck!

halloween print fabrics halloween print fabrics halloween print fabrics halloween print fabrics halloween print fabrics

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.

layer_photoshop_markup_design_fabric_legging_printing

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.

legging_layout_printing_fabric_design

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)

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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.

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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.

Photoshop_design_pattern_fabric_printing_leggings

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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Repeat for other leg

Group all layers and centre.

Your file is now ready to print!

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

legging_sports_luxe_design_fasion_rose_print

 

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DIY Bean Bag | DIY with Digital Fabrics

DIY Bean Bag
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 shopDid 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:

  1. 2 meters of heavyweight fabric. Waratah drill (147 cm wide). Design: Cheery.
  2. 2 packs of bean bag chair refill (100 Liter refill bags)
  3. Sewing machine
  4. Thread
  5. Scissors
  6. Pins

DIY Bean Bag

DIY Maxi Dress| DIY with Digital Fabrics

DIY Maxi Dress with Digital Fabrics
A maxi dress is a wardrobe staple that every woman needs. It’s feminine, easy to wear and DIY.

Ovoke shows us how you can DIY a maxi dress with Digital Fabrics. Our mission at Digital Fabrics is to help you to bring your creativity our amazing ideas to life! Shop this and more fabrics in our Fabric Shop

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.

First tutorial screenshot

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.

second tutorial screenshot

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

third tutorial screenshot

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.

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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.

fifth tutorial screenshot

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.

sixth tutorial screenshot

final tutorial screenshot

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Colours To Inspire: Purple & Orange

purple and orange fabric digital fabrics
Purple & orange is not an obvious colour combo but the mix of the deep purple and warm orange makes for a beautiful colour contrast. Purple promotes peace of mind, harmony of emotions and contributes to stability while orange radiates warmth and happiness.

purple and orange fabric digital fabrics
You can find the colours purple and orange in our Tribal Sunset fabric. If want you fabric colours to be perfect, no problems. We offer colour matching services. We can either colour match to provided Pantone colour or physical swatch.

Find more color inspiration on the Digital Fabrics Pinterest page

 

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

diy with digital fabrics style sew me
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 fabricOur mission at Digital Fabrics is to help you to bring your creativity and your amazing ideas to life!

digital fabrics style sew me
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