Although we have a vast array of fabric in the shop for our students to choose from for their projects we wanted to give them an opportunity to design there own. We were not surprised that they came up with so many playful, fun and creative prints.

We started by showing them some samples we did to get them to understand the scale and inspire them.

Each student was given a piece of white paper (we opted for a thicker art paper so that the markers would not bleed through) and a selection of markers and colored pencils for them to color and draw with. We encouraged them to let their imaginations go wild and draw what the love. There were animals, words, names, mustaches – you name it!

We used Spoonflower to print all of the fabrics – it is such an amazing resource for those who want to design and work with their own fabric designs. For you newbies out there check out their help section as they have really informative directions that take you through the process.

We ultimately had the students stitch up pajama pants with their custom fabrics.

One of our students got really creative and illustrated the NY skyline and then turned it into a skirt – happens to be one of our favorites!

We are looking forward to doing this project again with our students this Spring – - so look for lots more designs we will share.

If any of you have designed your own fabric we would love to see it – we welcome you to share it on our Facebook.