March Website Review: Spoonflower Custom Fabrics

This month’s favorite website is Spoonflower. Spoonflower is a custom fabric site where you create the pattern for the fabric. The creators of the site are Kim and Stephen Fraser. Kim created the spoonflower blog with the idea to print her own fabric.

Stephen, an internet marketing consultant, helped Kim bring the dream to life on the internet. Gart Davis who used to run an online company, Lulu.com, that offers print-on-demand books, was brought on board to help with the printing technology.

The photos all come from members of the spoonflower website (click the photos for credits). The site itself is free. The fabric is not free. Members are welcome to use public patterns, for private use only, with the consent of the owner.

To get started simply create or edit a picture using Photoshop or another type of graphic software as listed below. Upload the image to spoonflower. Choose a tile format and fabric size.

First timers who would like to try sketching images on their computer, spoonflower suggests starting out with ArtRage. The free version is limited to basic drawing and painting tools as well as the ability to create your own stencils.

Plaidmaker and is a fun tool you can use to make plaid fabric. I am really liking Wordle art right now.

Try this comic book tutorial if you are looking to do more with your photographs.  You can turn your photos into line drawings to embroider over or Andy Warhol-esque popart prints, or cut and paste elements of photos to create repeating patterns.

This is a fun family project. The kids will absolutely love seeing their drawing come to life.