Padrins

I have been obsessed with patterns since I was a child. In fact, it was one of my early words.  (See the title of this blog post…a word which is still in use in our family today.  There are some things which one can never live down, aren’t there?!)  I drew lots of them as a young person…and as a teenager…and in my notebooks at university…

Learning how to create my own textiles has been on my “to-do” list for some time, so when I saw that Lizzy House was going to be teaching a class in Pattern Design and Block Printing at the workroom this past August, I leapt at the opportunity.  Literally.  I think I signed up within 24 hours of seeing the announcement.  Lizzy is one of my favourite designers currently working in the industry, so I just knew that I would learn lots from her.

Well, the class certainly did not disappoint!  Lizzy was a fabulous teacher, and gave us lots of useful information about how to translate our ideas into marketable designs.  And she was SO supportive.  Having sat through my share of disastrous design crits in my education I can honestly say that she is wonderful at finding the kernel of something great in an early design, and helping you to push it forward.  And on top of all that she is just plain fun to be around.  I know, you’re SOO surprised, right?!

At the end of the three sessions I had lots of ideas swirling around my already cluttered brain, but I only had time to take one right through the process to the point of printing it on fabric.  I used some scrap fabric I had laying about, but actually the yellow/white combination is rather nice, don’t you think?  I’m really pleased with the way it turned out, and I hope to have some time in the near future to experiment with printing it in different colour combinations.

I’ve also been thinking about digitizing it and maybe having some printed by Spoonflower.  I’ve never ordered from them before, so I’d love some advice about which base cloth to print on.  I’ve heard some mixed reviews.  And if I printed a bit extra to sell in an Etsy shop, would people be interested in sewing with it?  Maybe if I came up with a few coordinating designs?

There were some other really talented people who took the class with me, so you should check out the pictures Karyn took while we were working away.  There are a few designs that I would totally buy if I found them in a fabric store.  And if Lizzy is teaching in your area, definitely sign up for a class!