Are you a designer with a head full of new ideas? Or maybe you just have a particular vision of a new piece of clothing, and the ones offered in shops don't match it? Whatever is your motivation, designing your own fabric can be a great idea! How to do this? We explain in a few steps.

We all love patterns - but sometimes finding the one you are looking for is a struggle. If you don't like to spend time searching through the shops - stationary or e-commerce ones - designing your own fabric can be a fantastic alternative. This way, you can wear clothes that are 100% customized and, as a result, ones of their kind. Printing your own fabric can be a good solution for designers, but even if you are not skilled in needlework, it's worth trying. You can take the textile to the local tailor and order custom-made clothing.

You already know the benefits - but what about the design itself? How to convert your vision to the printed pattern? It's not that complicated as it seems - all you need is a basic knowledge of Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Below you'll find a step-by-step guide that will lead you through the design process.

#1 Prepare a good drawing
In theory, any drawing could serve as the basis of a pattern. But the truth is, you have to pay attention to details - otherwise the result may not be satisfactory. Good tip: remove all the traces of the pencil if you sketched first. Also, keep the lines quite thin and clear and scan the image at the resolution of 300 dpi to keep the good quality of the scan.



#2 Craft your design in Adobe
You can choose Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator to prepare your drawing for printing in the form of a pattern. Both programs are intuitive, at least on a basic level. In Illustrator, you will have to switch from pixels to vectors, which will influence the final look of the design. Remember to set up the colour mode as CMYK in the pattern is destined to be printed on paper or fabric - RGB won't serve. On ctnbee.com you can find a detailed guide on how to set up the parameters of the file to make it suitable for printing and craft a pattern using Photoshop tools.

#3 Order printing and save the design for later
Using layers is the basis of each of the mentioned Adobe software. It allows you to come back to your design and make quick changes without ruining the structure of the whole drawing. That's why it's so important to remember about constructing them properly. Once the design is ready, save it in TIFF or JPEG and pass it to the printing company - they'll take care of the rest!