I’ve been designing fabrics for Spoonflower ever since I first heard about it in 2009 on the blog “Regretsy”. Regretsy originally promoted it as a way for followers to design humorous print-on-demand fabrics riffing on various memes and in-jokes of the Regretsy blog community, and I jumped right in because that style of comedy appealed so much to my sensibilities. However, I quickly discovered that Spoonflower was a game-changer for my designs. Before using that, the options for custom-designing fabrics were basically iron-on transfers and painting/drawing directly on fabric.
Both the iron-on technique and the painting technique were less satisfactory than the professional print-on-demand service that Spoonflower offered. The iron-on technique worked for putting a single graphic on a T-shirt, but very often, those would decline in quality over time as the shirt was washed. It was also limiting– those patterns couldn’t be printed over a large area with seamless repeats. Painting on fabric can be a messy and unpredictable process, and it’s difficult to have a large amount of detail that comes out crisp and clear and never washes away with that process.
Spoonflower and other print-on-demand services use the same processes that large-scale fabric manufacturers use, but can custom-print any design in small amounts– anything from an 8×8 inch swatch to multiple yards of fabric. They later added on custom wallpaper and wrapping paper printing services, which expanded the range of products their independent designers could market to audiences. To inspire indie designers, they would hold a few competitions a month with design prompts to spark ideas.
For me, some of the most exciting aspects of Spoonflower was the potential for getting re-prints of historical fabric designs that were gorgeous but not normally available commercially, and custom-printing the designs I needed for sewing cosplay outfits.
One downside I noticed with Spoonflower, however, is that if you use normal detergent when you wash their cotton fabrics, the designs will fade over time. The cotton-silk blend completely tears to shreds in a washing machine. However, the synthetics tend to hold their color well and are generally durable! I would recommend only gently hand-washing any natural fibers purchased from that site.
Contrado is another option for custom prints that I’ve discovered more recently. Contrado has some advantages over Spoonflower– there’s many more options to choose from, both as far as fabric types and the finishes you can get on custom-printed pieces. For example, Spoonflower doesn’t offer any 100% silk fabrics, but Contrado does have that. The biggest disadvantage is that the prices tend to be higher.
Both Spoonflower and Contrado offer sample packs for the types of fabrics they sell, and I highly recommend that any designer interested in custom-printed fabrics order those! They also sell prints that show what different colors look like when printed, which can be useful when designing fabrics in software.
One of the best uses that I’ve found for print-on-demand services over the years is making customized, one-of-a-kind gifts for people. I’ve done things like design tea towels that have family recipes along with archival photos, and my family loves those! One Spoonflower contest had the theme “Grandma’s Recipes”, and I chose a recipe that my grandma got from her mother.
All the photos on there were taken between 1910 and 1930, when my great-grandparents were starting a new family. My great uncle, Rev. Delos “Bud” Humphrey, was the baby in the middle of the bottom-right photo, and he has this linen towel hanging up in his room! The fabric print is a way to remember his early childhood without the original photos being exposed to the elements and taking wear-and-tear.
Another example is this fabric that I used to make a baby blanket when my nephew Dario was born in 2022:
Since Spoonflower has both soft, plush fabrics appropriate for making blankets and knit jersey fabrics for comfortable clothing, I made Dario a baby blanket and matching outfit. My sister-in-law refers to the blanket as his “Auntie Blankie” and says it’s his favorite one!
Whether the person you’re picking a gift for was born in the 1920s or 2020s, or any time in between, there’s ways to utilize fabric printing services to create something unique and meaningful!