Spoonflower’s 12 Days of Design: Day #12: Market Yourself

Well, it took me a whole month to get to Day #12. Most of that was waiting for the printed fabric to arrive (well, maybe half of it), but I’ve also been busy. But, now I can unveil my first attempt at designing fabric! Yes, it’s amateurish. But I’m an amateur. It comes with the territory.

So, what came in the package? Well, the fabric, of course, folded up nicely with a tissue paper “belt”, a thank you note (along with a reminder to wash your fabric before you do anything with it), and the packing slip (which also includes washing instructions along with a URL to get more care instructions).

My fabric! I call it Woodland Escape. Images and photo: Jenny Bristol

How did the fabric turn out? Well, I won’t quit my day job. (Still, you can buy it here!) Though I worked hard to make the lines fairly crisp, they are still a bit blurry. And I see that light colors don’t print too well. But the other colors themselves are good. You can order as little as a swatch (or combine several designs on one swatch to test for color and pattern), but I chose to order a fat quarter, so as to have enough to do something with. I got the Basic Cotton Ultra fabric, which is pretty thin, but it is similar to a quilter’s cotton, I’d say.

So, now it’s time to put my fabric up for sale, officially. This is when you can start marketing yourself on the Spoonflower site. Their Day #12 post has all kinds of tips. And don’t forget The Spoonflower Handbook, which steps you through everything from these 12 days, and a heck of a lot more, plus it’s filled with design inspiration.

It was an interesting experience, one which I hope to go through again once I have something more marketable to offer.