I remember just two years ago first discovering the small world of indie pattern makers. I found Megan Nielsen and Grainline at about the same time and I was seriously blown away. I thought that it was the most brilliant idea that I had ever heard of and I couldn’t wait to dive into this new community. Now, just a couple of years later, there are more indie pattern companies than I could name. There are companies geared to men, lingerie, rockabilly, modern, children, and every other niche you could think of. They cater to every skill level from complete beginner to couture. I love supporting indie pattern makers and I say the more the merrier.
In the last few months I feel like I am seeing another avenue open up for home sewers and sewing bloggers. It seems like we are desiring to not only have custom patterns, but also be able to create the fabric to go with it. As some one who agonizes over finding the perfect fabric for a project – and seems to have a hard time finding it – I am super excited about this. I think that this is a trend that is going to continue to grow as companies become more aware of the growing home sewing community and the desire to have fabrics geared towards our tastes. Here are some of the recent happenings that I’ve noticed in the way of fabric design:
Cotton + Steel : I watched their vimeo story about a month ago and felt so inspired. They launch their first line of fabrics in May as a collaboration of 5 designers with RJR fabrics. They seem to have a rockabiliy vibe to their designs and from what I can tell will mostly be producing cottons.
Art Gallery Fabrics – AGF announced earlier this month that they are creating a Limited Edition run of fabrics in collaboration with three sewing bloggers/patternmakers. While most of these fabrics are printed as quilting cottons I was really excited to hear that they are also releasing some of their designs in knits and voile too. I hear that they are going to continue this collaboration with other designers in the future.
By Hand London – This young and hip company once purely created sewing patterns but just recently announced that they will also be selling custom print on demand fabric. They have great taste so I can only imagine that their fabric is going to be killer. They launched a kickstarter campaign to buy their own digital printer. You can read more about it and contribute here.
Spoonflower – While they are by no means new to the scene I can only imagine that with the new competition they will continue to expand and find ways to connect with their audience. In fact I noticed that they just added a new lightweight modern jersey fabric option. I have found some really amazing designs while exploring their archives and I love that they offer silk in addition to other fabrics.
As excited as I am about the options above, I still think that there is plenty of room in the market especially for modern, less feminine designs in apparel fabrics such as silk, rayon challis and linen. I can’t wait to see this industry expand and see what is next.
How about you guys? Have you noticed this new trend starting as well? Are you excited about these new collaborations? Have you ever tried custom fabric before?