Measuring Up to the Cutting Edge

Thanks to Helen I now have four yards of this fabric -- actually, thanks to Helen I now have the LAST four yards of this fabric, because I'm mean like that. But take heart! There are other colorways (some border prints!) of this adorable Yuwa scissors fabric available at PurlSoho, and it's on sale (which means $9 instead of $15, but hey ...)

It's only 43 inches wide, and I did only get four yards of it, so I'm not sure exactly what I'll make yet. (It may work for the same pattern as the infamous Target-curtain numbers dress.)

It might just be my monitor, but I think this colorway is very 1930s, especially with the old-fashioned scissors. I can't wait until it shows up ... I hope I can get my new sewing room organized before then, so it can hop right into the washing machine and onto the cutting table!

My First Fabric!

Y'all have heard about Spoonflower, right? The web site of my (fabric) dreams, which lets you upload your own design for printing? (It's in beta right now, but you can sign up for an invite at that link.)

I just got my first swatch of my very first fabric, and here it is!



I think it turned out well. I need to work on my "scatter" fill -- this is still pretty stripey. I don't mind stripey, but I'd like to know how to do it right. (I've been looking at a book called Adobe Photoshop for Textile Design, but I haven't been looking at it very MUCH -- my own fault.)

Here's some more pics, the first for scale:



And this for a view of the selvage:



And Spoonflower's pretty logo:



The fabric has a slick hand, which I think will go away when I wash it (I haven't yet). I bought a swatch first, since 5 yards of 42" (which is of course what I would want) is about $90.

I asked Spoonflower if they were going to do some kind of split-commission sales model (like CafePress does) and they said they were looking into it. I am really only interested in making fabric for myself at this point, but if it becomes easy to sell it (that is, I don't have to doing anything more than click a little box that says "Make this available in the Spoonflower store") I probably would.

I found making the actual file for upload pretty easy and/or fun, but then I have a teeeeeny bit of experience with Photoshop already -- and enough google-fu to find help pages online for the stuff I didn't know how to do. (If you want your own speech balloons, check out this Ask Metafilter page.)

Quick update on the gray dress -- I loved getting so many suggestions! Lots of stuff I hadn't thought of ... I think, for immediate gratification, I'm going to narrow the sleeves a bit to make them more "cap" and less "kimono", and then add an orange obi-style belt (I kinda want to wear it Saturday -- yeah, I know). Then I'm going to order MORE of that fabric and make it again with a v-neck. (The fabric was only $1.99 at Fashion Fabrics Club, so I feel justified spending another $15 (including shipping).