My second Windham Fabrics collection is arriving in North American stores! The photo above is by Stash Fabrics and below, by Pink Castle Fabrics.
Share your UPPERCASE fabrics stashes and projects on instagram and twitter @uppercasemag #uppercasefabric. Thanks!
Strike offs are hand-printed silkscreened swatches to show colour and registration.
This is the most stressful part of the process, because so much is left to personal interpretation when it comes to colour. Requested changes to the colour are communicated to the production manager at Windham, who passes them along to the print production folks, who are in this case, in South Korea.
Some colours are too dark, others skew to bright. Some are perfect, others need a bit more yellow, or a bit less yellow... or need to be warmer, or cooler... I mark down my comments for each design in each colour and discuss the requested changes with the production manager.
There isn't time in the schedule to see a second batch of strike offs, so the production team proceeds to make sample yardage based on the first round of comments. The sample yardage is used to make the projects for the look book, sample swatches for the sales team, plus sample fat quarter bundles and charm packs to give away at spring Quilt Market.
My second collection with Windham Fabrics will be available stores in November! Leading up to its release, I though I'd share some of the process and behind-the-scenes looks at how it came to be. Like my first collection, the designs are inspired by the patterns that appear on the cover and spine of UPPERCASE magazine.
As you can see, there was a lot to work with! It was a matter of whittling it down to create a cohesive collection, while adding in a few new patterns to tie it all together.
My design brief for Volume 2 was "the same but different." So designs that could work as basics, but also some with more colours within a pattern.
The fabric swatches on the left are from my first collection. They're placed on some paper ink jet printouts to see how they work together. The common motifs for Volume 2 are dots (both circular and diamond-shaped), diamonds (squares on an angle) and dashes (repeated lines).
The colour palette is similar to the first collection, with little hits of black giving some graphic punch to many of the designs. (Not all of the paper designs pictured in this post ended up in the final collection.)
Researching and designing (and collecting!!!) swatches for the Feed Sacks book also influenced the collection. There were two specific designs that I reinterpreted to fit within the collection.
These vintage feed sacks' diamond motif inspired some of the new patterns.
I made lots and lots of printouts with various colours and designs before narrowing it down to present to Windham.
In my next post, we'll look at the strike offs!
My name is Rosalyn Faustino and I am the founder of Calgary Craft Alert. (hi!) Janine and I are happy to be co-hosting the Creative Supplies Swap at UPPERCASE this Saturday from 1-3pm.
I was born and raised in Calgary and went adventuring in Toronto for almost 13 years and came back to become an auntie to my nieces and to have a new adventure with my partner in 2014. I graduated Specializing in Sculpture and Design and Art History and became interested in more traditional and domestic craft work such as weaving, sewing, and quilting. Although, I love to draw and practice penmanship.
Calgary Craft Alert started its online presence in November 2015—when I was 7 months pregnant with my little boy. I wanted to create an online space for the art and craft community for the city of Calgary to connect with one another.
My first year of having a newborn and starting a new venture was quite tough, as I didn't often get the chance to explore the city and attend shows. I used Instagram and Facebook as my main sources of researching local talent and I immediately started to build the Calgary Craft Alert website, albeit at a very slow pace. However, you will most likely see my family and I going on craft adventures, now that summer is here!
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to sew a couple sample projects for Janine's newest fabric look book, Volume 2: Dots, Dashes and Diamonds. The patterns used are also made by a local designer, Krystine Czepuryk of Pretty By Hand.
Sign up for Calgary Craft Alert newsletter for the latest local craft news. See you on Saturday!
Join me later this month at the spring Quilt Market in St. Louis, Missouri!
I'll be giving a presentation (and giving away free magazines and there will be a draw for fabric) on Saturday, May 20 at 11am in the Windham Fabrics booth. On Sunday, May 21 starting at noon, you're invited to come back to the Windham Booth for a fun and easy craft: making necklaces and rings with my new collection UPPERCASE Volume 2: Dots, Dashes and Diamonds.
Supplies and space are limited for the free jewellery-making session, so if you're going to be at Quilt Market, please RSVP here to reserve a spot.
It's a fabric ring of POWER!
If you're going to be showing at market or roaming around and would like to connect, please get in touch.
Now that the Look Book for UPPERCASE Volume 2 is published, I'm happy to share more pictures of my sewing room.
Fiber drums purchased online from Uline.ca were the perfect solution for storing 32 bolts of fabric!
They nestle in a narrow hallway—they're nice to pass by everyday.
There are 32 SKUs in this collection! So many patterns and colours to work with! These are the cool colours...
And here are the warm colours. They're basically the same palette as my first fabric collection, but this time there are more colours at play in many of the designs.
This shelf used to be Finley's changing table.
I've always wanted a family of calico cats. Thanks to Glen and Finley and their Christmas gift, I have these little guys to play with. I'd like to sew them clothing in my fabric and vintage feed sack scraps.
So cute. They appeal to my 8-year-old self.
Vintage thread spools. They appeal to my 40-something-year-old self.
Here's an overview of the sewing area. It's at the base of the stairs and opens out to the deck. The neat areas are on the perimeter since I was taking pictures for the Look Book—everything else was piled up in the middle!
There's nice natural light to sew and photograph by.
I look forward to sharing more behind-the-scenes photos and details of the projects I made.
Safe to say, if you see nicely cropped images from me, there's a lot of STUFF that I've omitted from the shot!
It's pretty incredible to have a first fabric collection, let alone Volume 2! Thank you, Windham Fabrics!
Cover by Christy Batta
The UPPERCASE Circle is free for subscribers of the print magazine. Find out more.
UPPERCASE is a quarterly print magazine inspired by craft, design and illustration. A playful exploration of creativity, an affinity for vintage ephemera, and a love of handmade are some elements common in each issue. The magazine boasts high-quality paper and printing, a unique design aesthetic and incredible attention to detail.
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