Design your own fabric

Have you ever fancied designing your own fabric?  Do you find that you have something in mind for a project you are working on but can't quite find what you are looking for in the shops? The great news is that it is not as difficult or expensive as you might think to design your own.  Many companies today do digital printing so you do not have to pay the screen set up cost plus you can do it all online so you don't need to find someone local to do it.

Spoonflower

US based Spoonflower (http://www.spoonflower.com/) has long been the leader in this area.  They offer a range of fabric types, no minimum order and prices starting from just $16.20 (Around £10) per yard, you can even buy it by the fat quarter too.  You can also get samples sent out to check it looks just how you want before committing to a longer length.

What's more you can view fabrics other users have designed and for a small extra charge order some yourself.   The shipping costs are based on weight and the international cost is around double the US shipping cost but at about £2.50 a yard they are not as high as you might expect and can often still work out cheaper than getting fabric printed in the UK.

If you want to make money from your fabric designs you can upload them to the site and earn a commission for each length of your fabric purchased by other site users. 

They have some really unique and quirky fabrics that you can't find anywhere else on the internet, my husband is a big Dr Who fan so he now has a stocking made from this brilliant Dr Who fabric designed by Green Couch Studio.

The Fabric Press

UK based The Fabric Press (http://www.thefabricpress.com/ ) offer a similar service to Spoonflower, you can order from half a meter of fabric printed with your own design.  The price is £37 per metre with postage at £4.50 per delivery.  They also offer a great service where you can get certain item including bags, cushions and tea towels made up in fabric of your own design.  Prices start from £6 (for the tea towel purchasable in sets of 3, see image), Perfect for a unique gift.

FabPad

Another UK firm offering fabric printing online is FabPad (http://www.fabricprint.co.uk/).  Their prices start at £30 a metre, although if you order over 10m discounts are available.  They offer a range of fabrics and you can even pay for them to design the print for you.  They offer discounted prices for students and even run summer courses in London aimed on textile design.  

You will find their price list here along with details of their turnaround time and postage costs.

BeFab Be Creative

There's a new digital fabric printing company launching shorty called BeFab Be Creative.  They don't have a site up and running yet as they are still in the market research stage of the business, but you can join them on Facebook here.  

If you wanted to help with their market research you could complete a quick survery for them here.

Print your own fabric books

Of course if you fancy printing your own at home you can always try using your printer as this article on the Craftzine blog explains: http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/07/how-to_print_on_fabric_with_an.html

There are also books available about printing your own fabrics including Photo Fun: Print your own fabrics for quilts and crafts by Cindy Lyle Rymer available on Amazon here and for screen printing Prints Charming which you'll find our recent review of here.

Kim Knight, the author of the popular True Up blog has recently released a book called A Field Guide to Fabric Design: Design, Print & sell your own fabric which is a guide to both traditional and digital fabric printing.