Hello dear readers,
I love printing fabrics. I love designing fabrics. As you know I have very many patterns that I designed in my archive and hundreds of silkscreens to print my own patterns.
Soon some new furniture will arrive from Italy where I ordered three pieces from three famous brands that were made with my very own handprinted leather and textiles:
a) The Tufty Time bed by Patricia Urquiola
b) The Victor and Albert Armchair by Moroso
c) The chairs by MDF Italia with printed leather with my designs.
On the photos you can see my newest project. I was inspired an Etsy shop to not only print a pattern, but to make the print exactly right for sewing the pattern.
It was designed quickly and printed at Textilfab. It arrived after a week as a flat fabric. I then cut and sewed the pieces together. I had participated in a sewing course a few weeks ago. That made this project a lot easier.
I made these cushions with Sayeeda for my Etsy shop.
They are handprinted and each one is a unique design.
Write an email if you would like to learn to make such patterns. I will gladly teach you how to make patterns that you invent. I can also make the silkscreen fo you. These individual courses can also be held via email.
Since August Sayeeda Bacchus is working in my studio. We are concentrating on textile design in the last months. I attach a few work-in-progress shots of cushions that Sayeeda designed and that I will be sewing in the next days.
I will be showing more of the finished cushions and textiles soon.
My new sofa was delivered a few weeks ago. Actually it is not new. I bought the sofa Sofa Tufty Time about 5 years ago. It came with a standard fabric, as I had bought it off a showroom exhibition at a lower price: the fabric was orange and dark grey.
The children love the sofa. They jump on it even though they are already 9 and 10 years old. The fabric was therefore already torn. But there is another reason why I wanted to re-do the sofa: I am pregnant. It is no secret that pregnant women start to “build their nest”.
In many sleepless nights I started my investigations. I went into the internet and found many blogs sharing tutorials on how to make good use of spaces. As much as I fell in love with the idea of re-styling the apartment, I immediately felt that this was also a professional opportunity. I had done a lot in the area of textile design lately but nothing that we could “test” for private use.
I then ordered the fabric at the upholsterer. When he delivered the textiles I was surprised how many fabrics were necessary and how big they were. There were 6 furniture pieces that I wanted to re-do at the same time. For the Tufty Time sofa two of the fabrics were about 10 m2. They are so big because the sofa consists of so many folded parts.
It took a few weeks to finish the print. There were so many small and large pieces and I developed different ornaments and patterns for each of them (one for each arm-rest, one for the back, one for the front, etc.).
It was difficult to make the pattern large enough to fit to the design of the large sofa.
It was the first time I made a really big pattern repeat. It was a sort of table with 2 rows and 3 columns in which I made the design. I had to print 6 screens to finish one repeat, and then add the next 6 screens to continue the pattern, etc.
I think it paid off. The pattern I created fits to the pregnancy: flowers and embryos interwoven together.
Please comment if you like these designs.
Nina Levett creates edgy and provocative tableware and textiles. This blog is about her design process and graphics, ornaments, patterns and inspirations.
