Earlier today I posted a tutorial for my Easy Tote using a half yard of my custom designed fabric from My Fabric Designs. While my other post focused more on the tote bag tutorial, I wanted to give more of my impressions of My Fabric Designs in this post.I chose to design my own fabrics.
Before I got started designing, I ordered the Color Matrix, Color Guide, and Swatch Book so I could see and feel the different fabrics and see the how each color prints. Those tools were all well produced and helpful to have.
I found the whole website easy to use and navigate. For my designs I began by creating a repeating pattern that I transferred to a wood block. I carved the pattern, printed it, then scanned that image into Adobe Illustrator. I used Illustrator to digitized the pattern and change the colors. Then I created a jpg file for each of the 2 fabric designs.
Once I had my two jpgs ready to go I uploaded them to the My Fabric Designs website. These two patterns use the same woodcut shows above but I chose different repeat options when I set up the pattern in the My Fabric Designs website so they look much different. You can also adjust the scale of your design within My Fabric Designs.The preview feature was great and it showed exactly what a swatch or several yards of fabric would look like. There are 26 fabric types to choose from cotton, jersey knit, crepe de chine, canvas, french terry and more!
Once I had my designs ready to go, I hit order and waited for my fabric to arrive. The fabric itself feels beautiful and came out exactly as I had hoped. The color and scale were both just as I had previewed. In my final fabrics the colors look saturated and the image is crisp and clear. Because I started with a bit of a distressed design it was hard to tell if the fabric faded with washing at all, so I’ll have to test that again with a darker fabric in the future. Below you can see both of my fabrics after washing along with a small preview of what it looked like on screen before ordering.
Here’s the taupe fabric with the “mirror” repeat option:
And the orange fabric with the “default” repeat option:
Giveaway
Now you have the chance to win some fabric for yourself! Just comment below with your favorite fabric color and I’ll use random.org to pick a winner for a $35 credit to My Fabric Designs. Contest closes Saturday, April 16th at 11:59pm, EST.
Giveaway closed. Congrats to the winner, #90, Joy M!
I was provided with this fabric for free from My Fabric Designs, but as always, all opinions are honest and are my own.
103 comments
Since I have two girls, I use a lot of purple and pink, but I like blue and grey too.
My favorite fabric color is purple.
My favourite fabric colour is blue.
I love a good black and white!
how fun! I love blue – all shades.
How dues compare to spoonflower? I feel like theirs fades as well?
Anyhow pink fav color.
I’m buying a lot of purple fabric right now — can’t wait to use it!
It’s spring, so I’m currently crazy for green fabric.
Oranges for sure, bright and happy!
I love pinks!
Orange!!
Purple of .course! But love all vibrant colors
I like gray fabric. Great for blending.
My favorite color is green ( is this contest open worldwide?)
I love purple😊💜
I like blues and corals.
My favorite colors of fabric are blues and teals! Thanks!
I love the orange!
Margarita T
I’m into blue-greens.
Black and white all the way!
Ah, has to be lime green, or a bright lemony yellow!
I am into either red or black …..hard to decide unless I saw it and fell in love 😉
My favorite color is cobalt blue, but now that I will be a grandmother to a girl, I am thinking more pink or lavender. 🙂
Blues (for my daughter) and teals (for me)!
Hmm favorite color?? Is it blue or red or oh yes, GREEN!
I lover bright colors.
Cant decide between black and orange
I love all shades of blue. thank you for a chance.
Turquoise would be wonderful. Thank you
Lime and orange are my faves. Been making bags with blue and green lately for my daughter. Really, I love all colors! =)
Purple, purple, purple!!! :^)
I like red, but lately have been loving grays.
I like blue and grays.
Green – any shade !
i love red and white, so crisp
Turquoise!
My favorite color is a deep purple, so I always love fabrics in this color!
Thanks for showing us the design process. My favorite colors to use are earth tone colors: Brown, mustard, etc.
I am into blues and teals. I think of ocean tides when working with those two colors. Very restful.
The taupe in a default configuration would be my pick. Something low volume/neutral.
GREY, BLUE, TAUPE, YELLOW, PURPLE. (ALL COLORS!)
I love navy blue 🙂
Grey / monochrome – I’d love some fabulous blend fabric! Thank you.
Aqua is my current favorite.
This is great! I’ve used spoonflower but had not heard of this company yet! Thanks for sharing and for the giveaway… Favorite color of late is magenta 😊
Black and White
Greens and yellows are my favorites. Thanks for the opportunity to try my hand design my own fabric!
My favorite colors are violet, green and navy. Love that combo. Thanks for the intro to this company
Love me some purple!
I love anything in the red tones (wine, burgundy, red, brick, cranberry, rust, orange-red, etc.) sjvonfumetti at yahoo dot com
Love teals or Aqua
I love the bright colors! Pink, blue, yellow, green, purple. LOL, not a decisive choice, I know. Oh, and throw in some orange too!
I love tropical shades of blue.
Loving the tore my faves right now are burnt orange and grey. making a spider web quilt with Kaffee Fassette right now so my life is a eainbow
I love bags in red. Thanks for the opportunity.
My favorite fabric colors right now are spring colors, but I always love grey
Love the combo of turquoise and coral for Spring and Summer 🙂
Green is my favorite color!
I love purple, think thats why I never cut my purple fabric and use it. Just too pretty
Red is my favorite. (Great fabric!)
I’m being pulled towards the greens lately.
I love emerald green
My favourite colour is teal! Thanks!
My favorite used to be pink; now I favor red.
Grey and orange used in the post are great!
I love Blues…sky & watery shades of Blue Ahhhhhhh….
My favorite colors right now for bags are greys and black.
Red, Red, and Red!!!
I love any shade of purple. Thanks for the fun giveaway!
Awesome design, love it! I like teal, more than usual lately. I love blues! All shades.
Most blues and greens but esp navy blue
It is always blue for me. A calm color.
I love yellow especially buttery yellow!
I’m liking a lot of darker gray colors now – small prints that would work for new Summer tops!!!!
I love blue!
I love all colors especially dark colors and Batiks
I don’t know how I could ever pick just one color. I love them all!
I love your designs and love all colors. I’m one of those who can’t sew a quilt with lets say two colors in it! So hard for me to pick just one, sorry…but thanks for the chance, awesome!
Pink or purple.
Normally red and purple are my favourite colours, but when I’m sewing I love working with bright orange and yellow.
Coral is me.
My favorite color is Blue, all shades, hues…
It can be hard to match blues to use in a project.
My favourite colour is blue, particularly royal blue x
Iain.ross30 at gmail dot com
I love Purple and Gold ! Thanks !
I like many shades of grey and black, especially prints with these two colors.
Thanks for a chance to win.
It really depends what I’m using the fabric for, but I do love grey because it goes with nearly everything.
My favorite color is brown. Thanks for a chance to win!
I am loving orange colors lately. Thank you for sharing.
I love yellows, golds, blues. Sometimes my mood dictates my likes and dislikes. Love your fabrics. The bag is super cute. Thanks for sharing and the giveaway.
Turquoise is a calming go to colour for me. Thanks for the opportunity.
Purple has been speaking to me lately!
My favorite color is turquoise!
I’m huge on purples and teal right now, bright and summery
Orange or taupe…I love all the colors!
Love the combination of orange and grey together!
I love every color of the ocean, including tropical fish.
Purple and Aqua are favourites here.
Love Browns!
My favorite colour is cobalt blue, but I love purples, pinks and also greys as well!
I love the blue shade. I think that it called it ‘taupe’ color. It is very unique!
Both colors are awesome – love the wood cut design. This would be fun to try – making my own fabric design.
I usually fall for any blue variation. But, these two are very nice and I like that gray!