So, about a month ago I mentioned that I’d ordered some swatches from Spoonflower and when we came back from Denmark they were waiting for me. Hooray!
I am pretty happy with the results. Bearing in mind that I didn’t make much of an effort to have the colours fit exactly with the ‘proper’ Spoonflower specifications. I don’t have an appropriate program so there wasn’t much I could do anyway! ;-)
The only thing I did do, was to lighten the designs a little bit, because printed colours are usually darker than the colours you see on the screen. Other than that, the designs are simply .jpg files in the RGB colourscape.
OK. Let’s take a look at those swatches! :-)
First up, the wonky dots one. Above is the image used and below is the swatch.
Now, the colours aren’t as vibrant in the swatch, but they are still pretty much like the ones in the original. The only colours that are a little bit off, are the red and magenta. The yellow and green are really lovely.
The dots were printed on quilting weight cotton which feels very nice. Substantial but light.
Now to the flower one. ‘Original’ above. This one was printed on a cotton/bamboo rayon. Which is really soft and light and kinda see-through.
This swatch came out less true to the original than the other one. This could be due to the difference in fabric or the fact that it has a light blue background.
You may be able to notice a slight green-ness to the oranges and pinks. And the large green flower in the image below is supposed to be more of a turquoise. And overall the colours seem more off. But I don’t necessarily think that this is a bad thing. It gives it a sort of washed-out, faded vintage look. And what is wrong with that, eh? ;-)
I haven’t tried washing any of these, so I can’t tell you how they hold up in the wash. But I suspect they will be alright, as long as you stick with the washing instructions. Overall, I am really happy with this (first) Spoonflower adventure. It is easy to upload and order. There is a few different options for rotation etc of the fabric which are fun to play with – you can do this before you order.
Oh man, I really have to restrain myself from ordering several metres of the wonky dots fabric to make a quilt or something. Well, my sewing machine is broken, so I guess that would be a bit silly at the moment…
Of course, now my head is buzzing with more ideas for fabric than you can shake a stick at! I want to try this out some more.. Maybe make some available in the shop or something if there is any interest in that.