UPPERCASE Volume 2: Dots, Dashes & Diamonds

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!