I’m currently working on some ad layouts, and since I could pick any company I wanted for this design challenge, I chose Spooonflower.com as my theme. I’ve been custom-printing things with them ever since I found out about them on the Regretsy blog in 2009. Originally it caught my attention because people were posting funny images satirizing high fashion and the more pretentious side of the DIY trends of the time. However, this interest soon turned into something far more sophisticated.
All of the outfits in these photos were designed and sewn by me and incorporated custom printed fabric in some ways– sometimes for the entire garment, sometimes just for an accent.
For the most part, I didn’t sew these for any specific event– my attitude through most of the 2010s was, “This is NYC. Every time I leave the house, the street is my runway!” There was never a shortage of events to look fabulous for, although I often had anxiety about accidentally ruining labor-intensive, one-of-a-kind pieces.
Many of my designs are a throwback to the mid-20th century because my thought process has often been, “I don’t want something that will go out of style after I spend a long time making it. If I choose a design that’s already a classic, it’ll age well because of how Laver’s Law of Fashion works.”
| Indecent | 10 years before its time |
| Shameless | 5 years before its time |
| Outré (Daring) | 1 year before its time |
| Smart | Current fashion |
| Dowdy | 1 year after its time |
| Hideous | 10 years after its time |
| Ridiculous | 20 years after its time |
| Amusing | 30 years after its time |
| Quaint | 50 years after its time |
| Charming | 70 years after its time |
| Romantic | 100 years after its time |
| Beautiful | 150 years after its time |
Source: Wikipedia page
Essentially, any fashion that’s already more than 30 years old has already been through the “dowdy”, “hideous”, and “ridiculous” phases and only goes through positive phases after that.
My other reason for largely choosing classic rather than contemporary design lines is that very contemporary clothes are made with construction techniques that don’t lend themselves as well to home sewing, and today’s fashion is mostly informal. To me, the most fun things to sew are more formal items that involve working with luxurious fabrics, custom fits, and elegant finishes.
The jacket in this image was made from a 1960s evening coat pattern with a custom silk-cotton print inspired by one of the oldest evening gowns still in existence: the Golden Gown of Queen Margaret.
Here’s some info on the original garment: https://www.virtue.to/articles/margaret.html
The Spoonflower version is faux brocade printed to look like it has dimension to it, while the original was woven from gold threads.
Queen Margaret’s gown had such a streamlined, minimalist, natural cut and fit that it wasn’t much of a leap to adapt the fabric to a 1960s pattern!
The other fabrics in that image are a faux Rococo-era embroidery printed on silk-cotton blend and an abstract image I designed for a collection of red and black fabrics printed on silk crepe de chine. These two pieces weren’t necessarily designed to go together (there’s a different red dress I made to go with that jacket specifically), but the colors all go together well enough and I wanted to show off as many prints as possible in one photo. The fullness of the material over the hips also references the Rococo era, but it didn’t require the expensive amount of material that an actual Rococo gown would have!
This fabric is something I designed for one of the many contests that Spoonflower hosts for independent designers. To make it, I drew the bugs with ink and water color, scanned the images, mirrored them in photoshop, removed the backgrounds, and arranged an overlapping, repeating pattern. The dress pattern is from the 1950s, and like the yellow dress, it has a bit of fullness over the hips and a classic hourglass silhouette. This design was printed on Spoonflower’s cotton sateen fabric.
The patterned fabric on this sailor-style dress was designed for a Spoonflower contest where the theme was “extinct species”– it features drawings of ammonites based on ancient fossils, which go with the nautical theme of the dress. The cut and style of the dress is from a 1950s McCall’s pattern with options for both a full circle skirt and a pencil skirt. The blue fabric on this was originally a much darker indigo color that was a home dye job on white linen.
I chose that material because someone was giving away two free rolls of white linen at a costume swapping event at House of Yes in Brooklyn, and linen is a very versatile, comfortable, cooling, and attractive fabric for summer outfits. The home dye job faded within a season because of how much I wore this dress! I had a bad sun burn one summer, so I started to wear this dress “like an Edwardian-era swimsuit” instead of just as a sundress to prevent further skin damage. The fabric faded quickly from the combination of sun exposure and being worn at various outdoor pools and beaches. Even though this dress is only about 10 years old, it took enough wear and tear and was made with such traditional materials that it really ended up looking “like an Edwardian-era swimsuit”!