Half drop pattern design tutorial. Making a seamless repeat.

I have been asked to explain my method of making a half drop seamless repeat. This is the way I was taught as a textile design student before computers existed and dinosaurs roamed the earth.

1, the first thing you need to do is to design the elements in your design and think about how you want them to appear. This design started with doodles.

2. Decide on the size of your repeat and the kind of repeat you want, this one is going to be half drop. This means that the design repeats at half way intervals to the side.

Mark registration corners on your layout paper using simple crosses. This will determine the size of repeat.

3. Trace a piece of your design making sure you mark the crosses at the corners.

Transfer the design onto your layout paper and repeat, matching up the crosses.

4. Begin to grow the design sideways to meet up with the repeat.

Now repeat your new area accordingly.

5. Now start to fill in the areas above to meet up with the repeat, and repeat!

6. Continue filling in all the gaps until you have a seamless repeat, keep going, nearly there!

7. Carry on until all the elements are joined. Now you have your final tracing, complete one full repeat in colour adding more details as required. 

8. Give yourself a round of applause! and repeat !!

Owl in Oak Album

I have been doing quite a bit of experimenting with various inkjet coated fabrics, with varying degrees of success. I have found that by printing directly onto the fabric the effect is much better than the iron-on type of medium which has been around for some years now. By creating patterns on Photoshop, using my original hand drawn design, I devised this decorative cover for a small album. I used a Japanese style stab binding using some lovely hand dyed linen thread which I bought on a recent trip to Faulkiners.

On the whole I was pleased with the result but can see room for improvement. My other attempts are in my wheelie bin!

Hedgerow Collection

Some time ago I created a collection of Hedgerow inspired designs for Makower UK

The fabric collection is aimed at crafters and quilters and features images of owls, frogs, hedgehogs and mice alongside fruits, flowers and leaves.

It is always lovely to see how many different uses people make of these fabrics. Imagine my delight therefore, to receive a gift all the way from a crafter in Maine. TKR Designs make use of these three inch square "label" designs by sewing them into Balsam Sachets. They say that the Balsam Fir tree grows in Maine and the trimmings from the tree are used to make scented wreaths. They have a wonderful clean, fresh scent: I have hung mine on a drawer handle, as it is far too pretty to hide in a drawer! You can buy these hand made sachets from their on-line shop at Etsy.com