Pattern of the Month: Dotty

By Kate Riley September 8, 2015

September is my most favorite month of the year since we still enjoy the warmth of summer but fall is just around the corner. It’s harvest season here so the region is busy testing the sugars and bringing in the grapes when they’re ready. I’ve been taking walks in the evening just to enjoy a bit more time outdoors before it cools down.

I had ambitions of pulling together a collection of fall fabrics inspired by the season but realistic demands prevented it. In lieu of a collection I’ve switched things up and decided to release one per month for the rest of the year. September’s pattern is a medley of imperfect dots arranged in a geometric repeat, appropriately named Dotty and now available in 13 colors in my Spoonflower shop.

krd dotty samples

The palette for fall is warmer, so I introduced several earth tone colors like Olive, Slate, and Wine, but you’ll also find Leaf, Teal, Berry, Mustard, and Indigo among the colors available.

dotty kitchen towels and grapes

    

The pattern makes lovely curtains, pillows, and table linens too.

krd curtain

    

krd tablecloth

    

krd pillow

    

krd dotty pattern napkins

To design my own fabric patterns, I taught myself Photoshop and Illustrator several years ago. If you’re a beginner and interested in designing your own fabrics, I think the best two books out there to help you get started are Mastering the Art of Fabric Printing and Design by Laurie Wisbrun and the just released Spoonflower Handbook.

color chart fabric design books

I also recommend purchasing the Spoonflower Color Map in a full yard, it gives you the RGB hexidecimal codes for several hundred colors which is a great starting point for digital fabric printing.

As always the patterns are available as fabric, wall paper, and gift wrap too, view all my designs on my portfolio site.  Cheers!

13 comments

  1. I am a high school art teacher and we do an extensive design unit in my advanced class that leads up to a batik project. I like to emphasize the importance of positive and negative space in a design. Your September Dotty design is a great example of this concept! I would like to use a photo of one of your prints as an example to my students so they can see first hand how the lessons they are learning are used in the everyday world! I love your blog and really enjoy looking at your creativeness.

    • How kind Kay! So nice coming from a professional, yes feel free to use any of my images in your classroom presentations :)

  2. Love the new pattern. It kind of has an Ikat feel to it.
    Of the different types of fabric that Spoonflower offers, which one do you think would be the best for making drapes? Which type would hang the nicest?

  3. I love this pattern so much. I would very much like to recover my dining room and kitchen peninsula chairs in this fabric. I also have a mille fiori fabric I bought ages ago to cover just a small simple valance above two double windows in the room divided by French doors. The valance would go across all. The only other color in the room is a brick floor (natural brick), BM owl grey walls and white trim. The mille fiori fabric has very little white, lots of raspberry, blue, teal, and some purple. I know it sounds like it could be too busy, but I think if I stick with grey or navy as the color…..Advice?

  4. Love these new designs! My favorite is the indigo. I’m thinking of ordering it to make Euro size throw pillows for my bed; which is your favorite Spoonflower fabric for throw pillows?

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