I love the graphic photo print fabrics being used for all
kinds of clothing items and accessories at the moment. Although I am
sometimes guilty of falling into the gray-black-white comfort zone combo
when it comes to the colors in my wardrobe, there’s nothing like a
bright splash of color to lift the spirits, put a smile on your face,
and make you feel like summer is on its way! Rather than buying a dress
in a store, I went a step further by immortalizing a simple vacation
photo I took earlier this year and having it printed onto Spoonflower’s
beautiful
cotton silk blend.
I felt that this photo in particular was well composed for clothing
potential, with a good contrast between the land, sea and sky, and with
most of the ‘action’ towards the bottom edge of the picture.
You may have realized before now that I am a graphic design
novice and that most of my projects involve software that either came on
my computer when I bought it or that I have downloaded for free from
various online sources. I am always looking for ways to push my computer
to its limits and come up with design methods that bypass the typical
Photoshop or Illustrator route that I neither own nor know how to use.
I began by editing my photo in
Picasa and using the
posterize
option under their image processing tab, the photo became more graphic
with high contrast and dramatic colors. I also rotated the photo as the
landscape orientation worked better for my dress pattern layout.
After saving this version, I opened it up in
Paint
(yes, really!) where, under the resize option, I was able to increase
the size of the photo. I worked out that if I sized up the photo to fit
on 1.5 yards of cotton silk and set the design to basic repeat, 3 yards
would give me enough fabric to sew up this
Pleat Front Dress by Salme, and allow me a bit of extra room for good pattern placement and matching.
Spoonflower produces a good quality print at 150 dpi so in
order to make this photo fit 1.5 yards of fabric, you have to do a bit
of math, which is easy if you have a calculator. And I do! The
cotton-silk is 40” wide and 1.5 yards is 54” in length, so to resize the
fabric I multiplied 40 by 150 (which give the dpi for the width) and
then I multiplied 54 by 150 (which gave me the dpi for the length).
40 x 150 = 6000
54 x 150 = 8100
In Paint, I set the resize measurements to 6000 x 8100 with the ‘Maintain aspect ratio’ tab clicked off.
I then saved the file and uploaded it to my Spoonflower account. Once I
set the fabric to print onto 3 yards of Cotton-Silk with a basic repeat,
the photo fitted perfectly with a join line down the center that I knew
I would be able to avoid when considering my pattern placement.
I’m now thinking about other kinds of landscape photographs that I may
have that could be used in a similar way. I’m sure I have plenty of
cityscapes and skyscrapers but market crowds, rainforests, underwater
scenes or even sports stadiums printed onto clothing or accessories
would certainly be a great conversation starter. What sceneries would
you use?
About Our Guest Blogger
Hi! I'm Emma, and as well as working on the
Fiskars Design Team, I blog over at
hellobeautifulblog.blogspot.com/
I'm an obsessive sewer, often leaping into projects with
more enthusiasm than talent, more bravado than skill and more good luck
than anything else. This technique has worked well for me so far and
more often than not, I make things I love, even if they're not
absolutely perfect. And though I'm no expert, I have a passion for
fabric, color and design. I know what I like and what I like makes me
smile.
http://blog.spoonflower.com/2012/06/turn-a-vacation-photo-into-a-beach-dress.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SpoonflowerBlog+%28Spoonflower+blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
