Celia Hart's blog about what's going on in and around her studio.
Art, printmaking, inspirations, gardening, vegetables, hens, landscapes, wild flowers, East Anglia, adventure, travel.

Friday 4 October 2013

Tah-daaah! My first fabric collection

I've wanted to do this for years – adapt my block print designs for a repeat pattern for fabric. Then someone pointed me towards Spoonflower, and I got very excited!

There were other options of course . . .
Such as, printing directly onto fabric from hand cut blocks (tempting but it would mean completely reorganising my studio and I had other priority projects this summer)then printing to order - and I don't think I could handle the stress (perfectionist).
Or finding a UK digital fabric printer – yes there are some good ones BUT I would need to order everything and then resell it.



With a Spoonflower "studio" I could upload all my design ideas and order swatches/trial lengths and test them out before then opening a shop for anyone to order from. Fun and no wastage :-) Everthing is printed to order using eco-friendly water-based ink on beautiful natural fibre fabrics.

I've put together a collection Birds Wedding based on my print and popular card design 'The birds' wedding day'.



There is a large repeat design 'Hearts', a solid colour with small white motifs 'Sprigs' each are available in three colourways: Ruby, Sea and Stone. And also a modern Regency-style  'Stripe', which is available in the two pastel colours, Sea and Stone.

Well, the sample lengths arrived and I skipped around a bit because they were very very lovely. Then I snipped them up into pieces and made up three bundles of the beautiful linen/cotton soft furnishing quality canvas for my "Secret Sewers".




Later today they are going to blog about what they made, so pop over to visit:
Tracy's blog – where there is some superb patchwork (a table runner, coasters and cushions) and a give-away!
Over on Gina's blog there is a stunning tea cosy, a lovely red cushion and a make-up purse (which she's giving away to one lucky person)
And on Su's blog her makes are a large comfy cushion and padded case for her iPad.

For myself, I ordered a length of the cotton voile fabric printed in the Stone Stripe design . . .



My vintage Singer Starlet helped me stitch it into a simple curtain (a pole slides through a large hem at the top)





It makes the little window in the old stable room look very charmimg :-)


Although it was very difficult to photograph because the room is always quite dark . . . so I took the curtain outside and pegged it onto an apple tree to watch it ripple in the breeze.



And to admire my neat stitches :-) In fact it was a dream to sew, no slipping and the design makes it easy to align the hems perfectly straight.


So there we have it! 'Birds Wedding' my first ever fabric collection, available to order here.
Please don't let ordering from the US put you off, it is incredible efficient and even if you have to pay a little extra shipping/vat (duty is only charged for parcels over £135) the prices are very reasonable for such good quality fabrics.


btw I've started a Pinterest board Sew me! to collect together all the things that have been made from my fabrics, so if you buy some fabric and make something, please let me know and I'll Pin it :-)  
Celia
xx

PS with quilters in mind two small scale prints, "Small Sprigs" and "Small Stripe", will be available soon (I am trialing them in the quilting weight cotton this month).


36 comments:

  1. Looks lovely, Celia.I am tempted by the curtain you've made. Sadly, we have some other things in our financial plan.But you have given me an idea!

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  2. Oh Celia, so gorgeous. Your curtains are simply lovely.

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  3. What a great thing to add to your lovely collection especially like the repeat heart design

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    1. I love how the secret sewers have used that design.

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  4. Your right it is a charming window and it looks perfect with your new fabric... Just beautiful

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    1. Welcome to PPPs and thank you for the lovely comment x

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  5. It has been the most beautiful fabric to work with. I love your curtains!

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    1. I'm very pleased with all the fabrics - easy to cut and stitch.

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  6. Lovely! Not only the designs, but the color choices. Hmmm, where do I need new curtains?....

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  7. How wonderful it must be to actually have your own designs printed on the fabrics - well done and congratulations.
    I love the second photo with the light coming through the fabric showing off your design.

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    1. It is pretty, isn't it?! I think the voile is my favourite as the design has a new dimension in folds with the light shining through.

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  8. These look great and we have ordered several things from Spoonflower and all the things you say are true (good fabric, good print, washes fine, not too long for delivery!) - hope they do really well, look fab.

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    1. Oh, that's good to know. I have been very impressed with the service from Spoonflower so far.

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  9. It all looks very beautiful!

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    1. Thank you! made even better by my Secret Sewers creativity :-)

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  10. Just catching up after a week away and it has taken ages to get to this exciting news. I shall look at your shop tomorrow, just off out to dinner now. Well done Celia. xx

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  11. Beautiful designs, I came along here after seeing your design on Living on the Edge.

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    1. Welcome to PPPs x
      I have designed some variations of Stripe and Sprigs with quilters in mind - my trial patchwork is coming along fine and I'll be blogging about it soon.

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  12. Celia, your fabric designs are just as lovely as I thought they would be. Of course, I do love the red colorway the best, but love them all.

    Your expert sewing talents have done your creations proud.

    Looking forward to seeing you and being able to say and see more. xo

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    1. I'm looking froward to seeing you soon and telling you about the behind the scenes stuff ;-) xx

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  13. Congratulations Celia. This is a great way to diversify whilst staying clear about your the direction of your art. Your reasoning about going down this route is so sane and well thought through I love the colourways and I'm off to follow the links to see how they've been used.

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    1. Thank you L, ideally I would have loved to produce the fabric in the UK, either hand block printed or screen printed. But that wasn't going to happen for so many reasons. I'm reassured that you can understand my decision xx

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  14. Should have read the above to save the typographical error! Sorry for the duplication of words.... should have also added that the Pinterest site is a great way to monitor trends etc. Celia, you are a marketer after my own heart.

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    1. A last minute brain wave - and one I'm pleased with - Pinterest is a brilliant way to showcase the things that have been made from the fabrics and link back to the makers blogs.

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  15. All your designs are looking wonderful Celia, and sharing them with your favourite folk was inspired, I just love what everyone did with them :)

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    1. Saved me doing a hell of a lot of sewing too, Annie! xx

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  16. Your fabrics are lovely Celia, the colours look super together, well done! Your curtains show off the stripey design beautifully.

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    1. Thank you! I love the Stripe design too.
      I also loved doing the repeat digital artwork - satisfied my techie side :-)

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  17. Thank you, Ruby Hearts is beautiful.

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  18. I was the very lucky recipient of Gina's beautiful make-up case which I use to keep my needles, scissors etc. in (don't want to ruin it with make-up). Your fabrics are gorgeous! :)
    V x

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