What you need to know about printing your own fabrics
Looking to print your own fabrics? If you’re new to having your own fabrics printed, you may have concerns or perhaps not even know where to start. But don’t worry— we have put together this blog giving you all the information you need to know!
There are many different types of printing available on the commercial market but at Pigeon Wishes, we use a digital printing process using variable dot technology. This allows us to print your designs with optimum precision meaning you can create intricate and detailed designs and still achieve a high quality finish. This is also a substantially faster printing process than the likes of screen printing which is highly time consuming and subsequently, costly. The digital printing process allows us to print in a variety of tones and shades on a wide range of fabric bases giving you complete creative control over your designs with very few limitations!
Printing on different fabric bases can give you a completely different finish and feel so it’s important to consider the surface of the fabric and the final look you want to achieve. Something silky and sheen will have an almost formal, polished look to it once printed whereas a linen or linen blend fabric with a slub texture will have a more casual look. We have a broad range of fabrics ready for you to choose from, the best way to get a good idea of your options is to order a sample of the fabrics you’re considering, see the full list here. If you’re not sure what fabric from our range is right for you, let us know what you’re looking for in terms of qualities, the job of the product and any requirements and we can make suggestions to help you out. Alternatively, if you already have a fabric and want to know what the closest match is, it’s best if you send us a sample of the fabric for us to offer our best advice.
By choosing one of our unique, sustainable blends, you can combine your own signature style with an eco-conscious choice, really setting your brand apart from the crowd.
There are a few different types of print that you need to be aware of, a repeat print, motif print and border print, these are the three most commonly used in Fashion. For most types of print, you will require some element of repeat. This means that either side, top and bottom would match up to the next block when it is positioned right up next to the last one. This allows you to have a seamless design, no matter how complex your pattern is. This is the exact same concept you might find when wallpapering! If you want to fill the fabric with your design as a single graphic (not repeat), then create your design to fit a 145cm width fabric.
For digital printing, we will need a digital copy of your design, but this doesn’t mean that the whole design needs to be done digitally. Some designers hand draw or paint their design before scanning it in and editing before using a variety of CAD techniques to create their finished repeat. If digital design is more your thing, there are great platforms that you can use to start your design process such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, Canva and Procreate. Just remember, we’ll need your design to be at least 300DPI, in one of the following formats; PDF, PNG, PSD, JPG and we will need a key of pantone references for the colours you have used in your design. This just makes sure we get the best possible result, every time.
Because at Pigeon Wishes we use a Digital Printing process, we can print a range of your designs onto just one length of fabric, this is great if you're looking for samples for your portfolio, want to test out a few designs or only need a small amount of a design too!
Still have questions about our printing service? Don’t worry, we’re always here to help! Just send us an email at yuhao@pigeonwishes.com and we will get back to you.
