DIY fabric design

If you're new to this blog (and hello, if you are!) you may not know that I've been doing some work for Spoonflower involving simple fabric design with a big impact. I'm new to the concept of putting things on fabric, but I really love what I've been making so far.

These are my zipcode cushions made by using google maps to get a satellite image of where I'm from in England. Look how beautiful and green it is! A bit different to So Cal.... You can read about how to make something of your own special place by clicking here.

 
This week I made some tea towels using my late grandmother's handwritten recipes. These are made even more special because they are the only remaining examples of her handwriting we have left. I'd recognize her handwriting anywhere. It was so unique. Read about them here. 

You may or may not know that you can buy fabrics through Spoonflower that have been designed by actual professionals. Here I used their cotton/linen canvas to recover an old ottoman. Read about the transformation here. I did this about a month ago. It's so pretty it was hard letting the kids sit on it. The fabric I used is designed by Zesti

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13 comments

  1. You have the best ideas! Google maps, recipes... brilliant :)

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  2. Absolutely brilliant work!I appreciate your creative work keep it up..

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  3. Love the tea towels! I have some of my grandmothers recipes and a great aunt's journal - I love this! :)

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  4. Just found your blog through spoonflower. I love your projects. Especially the recipe tea towels. Really special!

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  5. Your project for transferring the vintage recipes to a tea towel is fabulous. I really want to try it but am confused as to how you actually transferred the image to the tea towel. Did you actually run the fabric throught your printer??? Thanks. dix---

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    1. I uploaded the digital image to Spoonflower's website. They are a printing company who will print your design or images to all kinds of fabrics. They send you the fabric with your image printed on and you sew it into tea towels. The full 'how to' is here http://blog.spoonflower.com/2012/07/turn-recipes-into-tea-towels.html

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  6. Emma this is so cool!!! One of these days I will get off of my afraid to try it butt and spend time figuring spoonflower out!!! You just need to show me a few more awesome ideas and hopefully it will push me into it! LOL
    kelly #6558

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  8. I love the tea towels! Unfortunately, I have run into lots of difficulties. I can't make the design (using 4 recipes per yard of linen) fit the area! It's too small. Plus, some of the recipes (they are on different size papers, depending on what my grandmother had on hand at the time) won't fit the area--it cuts off the top/bottom/side of the recipe. I tried both taking a photo and scanning the recipes with the same basic results. I downloaded Picasa and am using that, but still can't figure it out. I've noticed that other people are having the same issues, so now I'm just frustrated and so much want to figure it out to save the recipes of not only my grandmother, but one that my great-grandmother wrote out. Can you help me figure out what I am doing wrong? =(

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    1. Hi Julie, I am very happy to help you with your tea towels. Would you please email me at emma.hellobeautiful@gmail.com
      I couldn't see your email address on your profile otherwise I'd email you!

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  9. Hi Emma, I just found your blog via Pip @ Meet me at Mikes. Love the zip code cushions. I ordered two yards of linen from Spoonflower of a painting my daughter did in Kindergarten. I can't wait for it to arrive!
    Tash

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  10. Hi Emma, I just found the tea towels with vintage recipes via Pinterest! I'm working on Christmas gifts (already!) and this is one thing I'd love to do for my family. I seem to be having the same problem as Julie from above. I can't seem to get my recipes to fit within the space for each of the 4 recipes. I'm using the same recipe 4 times so I can get 4 towels per yard. My recipe is long horizontally (a 3x5 index card but with back and front writing) so mine is turned 90 degrees from the way yours were set up. So my towels will read long-ways instead of tall like yours. Anyway, I've tried editing in the paint program but it doesn't seem to change when I put it in Picasa. Any help you can provide would be great!! Thanks!

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