New Fabric: Dos - and - Donts

Alright so guess who finally printed their own fabric? If you guess us...TourNewSoul, you're pretty smart! Yeah, we finally got around to making some pretty cute stuff to release during the winter season. Figured we could keep it somewhat winter-themed while still making it wearable if you find yourself looking for a pin or hair clip in the summer time. 

We went with Spoonflower this time around, hearing pretty good things about it (aside from not having a 'true black'). They shipped our items pretty quickly considering the time they estimated it taking. Within less than two weeks we received our fat quarter. I  am really happy with it! ★

So we learned a lot this round when it comes to printing your own fabric. First off, wayyyy harder than it looks. I got Kaye, my business partner/best friend, to do the artwork because if it were left to me it would be doodle drawings. She did an excellent job, though I was sorely mistaken in thinking it would only take to weeks to crank it out. Turns out, when you're paying to print out your own art work, you really care about the little details. Which is actually a really good thing, so I have no room to complain, haha. 

We originally wanted to go for a kind of cameo look, but it turned more into an ode to woodland critters. I wanted to go in a more fancy direction, so with the fox I had Kaye add a top hat, keeping it in theme with more of our items (i.e. hats). We also had a wolf at one point, but ultimately we decided against adding it in, there just wasn't enough room for him this time around. 

Anyway, push came to shove and we finally settled on the sizes, colors and animals. Ultimately, as far as do's and dont's go: 

★My advice on fabric printing:

• Give yourself PLENTY of time; it takes a long time to design ideas, but even longer to get it printed. For us, it took almost two weeks!
• Allow yourself the room to edit. Not just in terms of color and design, but cutting out the "extra fat" per se, so that the design you do go for is ultimately stronger.
• Give yourself the creative freedom to try out new things. That's the beauty of editing down, you don't have to print it all!
• Request spoonflower fabric samples/color palettes. They offer them for next to nothing and they really do help out if you are worried about what fabric to go with or if your colors may be off when you finally receive your fabric. 
• If you have the time, I would request a swatch sample if you're making a large order. That way, you won't be stuck with fabric you hadn't intended in large quantities.
• I wouldn't recommend Spoonflower if you are on a time crunch. May be best to try to find a local print shop to get your art work done. Given enough time, I would suggest trying it out because it's prices are pretty reasonable.
• Be incredible careful with sizing. We ended up with our fabric being printed about double the size the preview estimated it would be. So I would suggest go smaller, and like I said, if you can get a swatch first, go for it!

I'll post up some pictures of the final product in a bit. If you liked this blog, feel free to share it with others, and comment below! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the fabric, the blog, or pretty much anything else. Want to know something about TourNewSoul, myself, the world? Ask below, I might make a post about it. ♫♫