gienahclarette and I were thinking about getting our own custom-made fabric, and we decided to give Spoonflower a shot. Initial Stuffs:
Black ink on white fabric
White ink on black fabric
These are the digital files that were sent to Spoonflower. You might remember
gienahclarette ’s Bone Aviary from last summer that was originally screenprinted by hand. She went ahead and redesigned it a bit and send the files off to Spoonflower. Below is a photo of the test swatches ordered to make sure the printing and all that would work. The Product: 4.5/5
The swatches were printed on their quilting cotton, which turned out quite nice. The weight/thickness is perfect for a summer JSK or maybe a casual skirt. One thing that did happen was that the dark and light greys didn’t show up as clearly as they do in the digital files; possibly screen/printer callibration? We're not totally sure. Additionally it seems that the black ink on white bleeds a little.
Best part: Throw the fabric in the wash and it’s totally fine!
Very little shrinkage, if any. There doesn’t seem to be any bleeding either. But you can see here that the grey tones barely show up in the white version and not at all in the black version. Also the contrast between the two color ways is different as well.
Communication: 5/5
Communication was prompt, and they send an estimate of how long the project is going to take to be printed and shipped, and also an additional notification when they do end up shipping it. It does take a few weeks, but it’s pretty worth it.
Pricing:
It really depends, I think. The fabric at Spoonflower costs about $18-$27 a yard, depending on the material. There are some Japanese import fabrics that you could get for a couple dollars less per yard, but then there's shipping to factor in. Personally, I would rather go with Spoonflower, considering the ability to make your own design and also choose the fabric you want. I'm super excited there's an option to print on twill to make tote bags :D
Hope this was helpful!
