My First Experiences – Historical Sewing (2024)

In a world with thousands of fabrics in various prints and designs and colors, sometimes you just don’t find what you’re looking for. Enter Spoonflower (in 2008) to allow us to order fabric in custom prints. Whoot!

The concept is fabulous! However, as the company was starting to grow many of us sew-ers were curious as to the quality of the textiles as well as the printing. In 2019 I finally had the opportunity to test their service.

Several years ago when casually exploring their available I stumbled upon prints patterned after and influenced by Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion attraction. Oh yes!! Then Disney pulled their weight and my wished-for, famous mansion wallpaper print was removed from the site…. there went my idea of making a full bustle dress in the print.

But then in 2019 one theme for Costume College was “Tea at the Haunted Manor”, which was going to be based on our beloved Disney ride. Now I had a “real” reason to make something in a HM print.

So I ordered three swatches of various mansion prints (above photo) to test the fabric and print quality. I will insert here that these first swatches took three weeks to receive. My first experience with their service was lackluster as other reviews said shipping and delivery were all in good time. So I’m not sure what delayed my simple swatch order.

The poly satin (green & black stripe) printed up the best in color. Beautiful, actually! Although, it is super thin as a textile, and I’d mainly use it as a lining, if I even wanted to use polyester fabric. My initial thought was do make a 1840s day dress out of the black and green stripe. Oh, how I wish the satin poly was heavier! It would have been lovely…. even if it IS polyester.

The basic cotton (top swatch) was not bad, if not a little thin for structured 19th century projects. That would be my first choice anyway for a historically-based project. The other swatch (blue print) was their silky faille which, again, printed up lovely, but was light with decent hand and all polyester.

Feeling disheartened I let the project rest for several months. Then a new idea developed: make a Haunted Mansion themed dirndl using the classic cast member black and green stripe. Back to the drawing board of what fabrics to print up and use.

I chose their new offering of “Petal Signature Cotton” and made the risky move of ordering yardage before testing a swatch. Shipping was as expected and about two to three weeks for the full process from order placement to delivery.

The fabric was VERY stiff where the print was applied. Like, a stiff organdy hand.

The selvedge areas where there was no print were softer and I would consider the base textile like a good quality cotton. However, because I ordered a fully printed design in dark colors lots of ink was used causing the heavy thickness. (Keep reading for more when the print *doesn’t* take up the full width.)

Taking a deep breath I tossed the whole three yards into the washer to see if it would soften up a bit. It did a little. It’s still stiff but not as much. The color – even in the solid black and green – keep just fine in the standard machine wash and low heat tumble dry. Check mark that box!

I used the black stripe only as the dirndl apron so I could switch it out for other looks later. The apron hangs rather stiff but isn’t too bad. I don’t want to keep washing it to see if it gets softer. But keep that in mind for heavy prints you are considering.

My most recent (and second) Spoonflower experience was selecting a cotton fabric for a late 1890s shirtwaist. Now, I was looking for a RED stripe and found a beautiful and perfect print… but it was a bias print, meaning the stripes are horizontal on the fabric and at an angle to the selvedge.

I needed an on-grain stripe, so I contacted the designer to see if they could upload the same design but at a true vertical alignment. (She didn’t respond through the direct Spoonflower contact option, so I searched for her online and found her own website where she DID email me back.)

Little Arrow Design was so lovely in her quick response. She soon uploaded my requested design into the platform, even including a direct link to it in her emailed reply back to me.

Once again I ordered yardage of the Petal Signature Cotton without swatching…. because the red stripe design seemed perfect for my project…..

I’ll admit I didn’t strongly look at the ruler against the print before ordering. The fabric arrived in a timely manner, but my first thought was, “oh, no! The stripes are too wide and too far apart for my bodice!”The proportion is off.

But my very next thought was, “why is the red a light shade, like strawberry, and not the true red showing on the screen??”(See above photo with the green swatches for best color of the printed red – it’s SUPER hard to photograph where it shows the light red color!)

So this recent experience hasn’t been the best. I’ll accept that it was my own fault for not verifying the stripe width – perfect for home dec or larger projects but not for a fitted bodice. But the light red print on the cotton is most disappointing. It’s not the fabric I thought I was ordering.

The cotton fabric IS soft, however, and I’d trust it would wash up nicely without loss of color as the black/green stripe did. It’s overall much softer yardage, too, with so much less color printed on the fabric.

(I’m looking for another stripe now and may use this Spoonflower yardage for a petticoat or even my skirt underlining fabric. It’s a good quality to use either way.)

In conclusion, I would order from Spoonflower again.

Their cottons are decent quality and wash well, but watch for those designs that take up the full surface or are full of dark colors. Printing on the synthetics bring out the vibrant colors one expects; on the cotton fabrics it’s not as bright (in my experience). I’m curious to try their sateen and twill fabrics for historical, structured projects.

Being on the pricier side of fabrics, I’d have to really want a particular design before ordering again. Modern quilting cottons from other fabric stores are a slightly better quality for the price (even at $10-12/yard for basic cotton), in my opinion.

Have you ordered and used Spoonflower fabrics? What has been your experience? I’d love to know!