by Steph Skardal | Jan 9, 2019
I love the sweet spot for mixing technology and craft so I jumped at the opportunity to test out JOANN’s MyFabric, a new service joining the world of print on demand fabric. I’m most familiar with Spoonflower, which offers print on demand of your own designs or those created by other designers, and Hawthorne Supply Co, which offers print on demand of their in-house designs. And finally, I’ve recently become a designer at Honest Fabric, a new print on demand service focusing on large print areas (intended for quilting). I ordered two different substrates from JOANN’s MyFabric, and here I’ll share some details about that process and my experience.
First Impressions
When I first visited the MyFabric listing page, I found 4,500+ designs to be a little overwhelming. While I was able to filter the designs (by collection, style, etc.), my initial reaction was “Where do I begin?!”. Outside of the search filtering, the only starting point I saw was a few targeted collections (e.g. modern farmhouse, black & white) shown on the landing page.
Customizable fabric listing page for JOANN MyFabric.
From browsing, I quickly determined that JOANN’s MyFabric is limiting printing to in-house designs and I reviewed JOANN’s press release on MyFabric to confirm. Users can modify repeat type and scale in all of the designs, and color choices in some of the designs (this is not clearly indicated).
MyFabric currently sits as a hybrid between Spoonflower and Hawthorne Supply Co: users are limited to specific designs, but pattern scale, pattern repeat type, color, and substrate can be customized. The press release indicates that MyFabric will expand to allow customers to upload their own designs in early 2019, although there’s no indication that MyFabric will include a marketplace like Spoonflower where designers can make their designs for sale to the public and earn a cut for each yard sold. The technology driving the customization and the printing is provided by Durham, North Carolina-basedWeaveUp.
EDIT (Added January 10th): Thanks to feedback on this post, I’ve quickly gained more insight into how WeaveUp works. It appears that JOANN’s is selling designs provided by the designers from the WeaveUp community, without mention of the designer’s name on JOANN’s website. Although, I will note that one of my fabric selvages included a designer name that left me puzzled. You can browse the WeaveUp fabric here and they offer a valuable Starter Kit to examine the substrates and color printing behavior.
Customization
After I selected two designs I liked (shelly and Breakfast Party), I clicked on the “Customize this Fabric” option on the product detail page to go to a full-width customization page. I modified the colors and scale of the repeatable pattern in shelly, and I modified the scale of the pattern only in Breakfast Party.
Example screenshot of JOANN MyFabric customization of fabric including color, repeat pattern, scale.
Example Screenshot of JOANN MyFabric customization of fabric including repeat pattern and scale.
After I saved each customization, I returned to the product detail page to select a substrate. I ordered one yard of silk cotton voile in the customized shelly design, and one yard of 4-way knit in the customized Breakfast Party design. I couldn’t find more information about the substrates I was ordering, which made for a difficult user experience. According to the press release, physical stores will carry the fabric options for any customers who would like to touch and see the substrates before ordering.
Clicking “About Fabrics” on the product detail page did not provide any fabric information (on a desktop browser). From the MyFabric landing page, there is a popup that contains information about only 15 of the 27 substrates.
Here are price lists for one yard of 54” wide printing (different widths noted) to get some context of pricing. However, substrate names are not normalized, so it’s difficult to compare without further research or sampling:
From my own experience of custom fabric printing, colorstay, color bleed, and fabric texture (stiffness) have occasionally been an issue, so I was curious to see how MyFabric compared. Upon arrival, the JOANN MyFabric substrates did not appear to have any stiffness issues. The 4-way knit felt more like a poly/Lycra blend than I expected, so I changed my sewing plans for it.
In both substrates, I noticed color bleed and color discrepancies, and the one-yard cuts were not the labeled 54” width. The silk voile measured 52”, and the 4-way knit 58”.
A side-by-side comparison of the customized silk voile on a browser (left) and what I received (right). The motif is more red/purple than the dark aqua than I chose, and color bleed changed the volume of the motif.
A side-by-side comparison of the customized 4-way stretch knit fabric on a browser (left) and what I received (right). Gray and pinks didn’t absorb well, and there was minimal color bleed.
I didn’t wash the silk cotton voile because it’s dry clean only, but I washed the 4-way knit as instructed (wash normal, tumble dry low). The colorstay passed my test with no visible fading.
Despite the noted issues, I made an infinity scarf from the silk voile and leggings from the 4-way stretch knit. Sewing with the two substrates was as expected and I had no problems. The silk voile is very lightweight and finicky to work with as silk voile can be, and the 4-way stretch knit was suitable for sewing (combined with serging). I would be interested in working with a simple quilting cotton or a heavier weight substrate next, of the 25 remaining substrates.
My Take
My personalization and sewing experience overall was positive and I was excited to receive the custom fabric, but I think there are a few kinks that need to be worked out with this brand new product offering by JOANNs.
I experienced a handful of software and usability issues that would frustrate most users. I couldn’t find any information about the fabrics when I was ordering, so I found myself guessing at the fabric care based on previous experience. While I personally didn’t have an issue customizing the fabric, I was frustrated that there was no indication of limited color customization of designs (i.e. there was nothing indicating that Breakfast Party could only be edited in scale and repeat type).
From my observation, competitors like Spoonflower and Hawthorne Supply Co. have had more time to grow organically. As a result, they have established expertise on the challenges in custom fabric printing (such as color calibration, colorstay and color bleed). I would be surprised if JOANN’s has been able to quality control test 4,500 designs x 27 substrates (121,500+ choices without customizing color). That being said, I am not surprised to experience color issues on my order, though they weren’t significant enough to stop me from sewing.
I was overwhelmed by the 4,500+ design options and lack of any marketing focus (outside of collections). In all of the press release, landing page, listing, and product detail pages, I see only three photos of items created with these custom designs, so it’s difficult to get a sense of how the designs will work in real-life sewing.
This lack of marketing focus leads me to think more about what the intended audience is here: Is JOANNs experimenting with this new technology to see what sticks? Are they looking to upsell to existing customers (who typically pay less per yard for non-customized fabric) to a more personalized experience? Or are they looking to compete directly with Spoonflower and other print on demand providers? According to other press releases, JOANNs is investing resources leveraging other new technologies (e.g. 3D Printing and the concept store) to capitalize on experience, community, and personalization. I believe these are efforts to keep brick and mortar shops relevant in this age of online shopping. But, I think JOANN’s MyFabric needs a clear audience and supporting marketing strategy to reach a bigger community and gain momentum.
Do as I Say, Not As I Do: Order a Sample
If you find you a design you like from JOANN’s MyFabric, I would advise determining if your local store carries the 27 substrates for you to examine, and visit it to touch the options. Ordering a sample is the best way to test if MyFabric will work for you, as it will help you sort out any color issues like calibration, bleeding, and colorstay. For what it’s worth, this is the same advice I would give when ordering from any print on demand provider.
Rachnaon January 10, 2019 at 7:53 am
The fabric designs uploaded on Joann are basically artworks of artist on weaveup. Joann should have linked individual artist name but probably they want to project these designs are what they are selling. There is price difference in fabric on weaveup and Joann. There will be no issue in repeat etc as weaveup has quality control on their artist submissions and uploads.
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Abby Glassenbergon January 10, 2019 at 12:41 pm
Here’s a little more from the WeaveUp site about the partnership: https://weaveup.com/our-newest-partnership-joann/ I would agree that it would be nice if it was clear who designed these fabrics.
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Denise Beverlyon January 10, 2019 at 2:11 pm
Yes we have questioned WeaveUp about the lack of attribution but they said that was a choice made by the JoAnn company.
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Rachnaon January 16, 2019 at 11:14 am
I would also like to add that with Joann it’s technology transfer for weave up. They have shared there embedded software with Joann which implies they will be maintaining this software for weave up. This way both of them have diversified. As of now about 4000 plus designs have been shared by weaveup with Joann myfabric. As the present set of clients get use to Joann will have their own designer fabrics.
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Denise Beverlyon January 10, 2019 at 8:50 am
Thank you for this review. I am an artist on both Spoonflower and WeaveUp so I was very curious to see the differences.
My ordering experience went awry through Paypal, with JoAnn getting it straightened out after a bit, still I have to reorder. Hopefully they will have more of the kinks ironed out. They stated it was because my mailing address was different on Paypal.
As for the color issues, I can tell you that WeaveUp uses a different process for submission of designs.
Spoonflower accepts jpeg and png with the usual color profiles.
However WeaveUp, since they allow color customization on their site, has us submit color-indexed images as TIFF files. This means some of the auxiliary tones or shades of a color may have been shifted. If we want the colors to be customizable they are limited to 12 or less. Depending on the artists wishes, sometimes that means the colors will simplify a bit, if that makes sense.
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Judith l. Gauthieron January 15, 2019 at 9:59 am
I am baffled by the success of Spoonflower and the print on demand industry. While it is exciting to see your own designs on fabric, the quality is just not there. I ordered some fabric from Spoonflower once, and thought that quality was considerably less than the mainstream fabric companies. However, I wasn’t completely displeased with it, and it is sitting in my stash. The second time I ordered, I actually threw it in the trash because it was so bad. The fact that it is so expensive makes me wonder–can the average sewist afford to make an entire quilt from print from demand fabric? Why do they buy it when it’s so expensive and the quality is considerably lower? As the owner of an old fashioned brick and mortar, and an online shop, I am always very cognizant of how the customer will perceive pricing for fabric. I guess I just don’t get the allure. I understand the part about wanting a custom print, but when it is considerably faded after washing, and the feel of it isn’t good, why are people flocking to this method? I would hope someone reading this would enlighten me.
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Rachnaon January 15, 2019 at 12:26 pm
POD sites came into existence as there was no minimums offered and custom designs could be done. For designers who had clients but no manufacturing set these sites were a boon. The quality was not a issue as most of the POD sites are used for sampling purposes only. As a designer I have seen that most of times fabrics are sold in very low quantities. I feel people buy samples and then develop quantities elsewhere at better prices and quality. The basic difference between weaveup and spoonflower is that designers at weaveup are not required to buy before then can sell their designs. And at weaveup the designers are not needed to promote their designs on social network. Weaveup has tieups.. All contests in various POD sites are based on voting the larger the votes the better the chance to win . Simply means that quality and designing takes a backseat and social networks are of importance.. The number of designers is large has definitely input is high and swatch sales should be very high at spoonflower :).
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Jamie Bourgeoison January 18, 2019 at 10:40 am
Judith, I can answer this as both an average home sewist and separately as a small business owner.
As a sewer, a POD fabric can help with a one time project that offers unique prints that fits what you are trying to make. I sew with mostly quilting cottons and found that I have to use Spoonflower’s Kona cotton for anything of decent quality (less stiffness, etc). But, I could not do this on any regular basis because the price would be cost prohibitive!
As a small business owner, POD is not something I can do, which is very unfortunate because there are many designs from indy designers I would love to bring to my small biz line. The cost of the fabric is about 3 times what I pay from large fabric houses. Obviously this would cut into my very small profit margin.
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Denise Beverlyon January 20, 2019 at 1:38 am
Jamie, This really makes me sad. As one of the indy designers on Spoonflower and others, I would love to have more connection to makers and small business people.
I will honestly say my hesitancy to begin designing fabrics was the cost buyers would have to pay. I have been an active quilter in the past and realize what goes into completing a project. It is discouraging to see the cost is what keeps people away.
We only get 10% for a commission on Spoonflower, 15% on My Fabric Designs and similar commissions on WeaveUp. I do wish the base costs were not so high, in the end it would be a good thing for everybody I would think.
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Anonymouson January 15, 2019 at 1:51 pm
Very interesting and informative article. Thank you for that.
I’ve never ordered from any of the vendors but understand digital printing and quaity control.
The average buyer of fabric at Joann is extremely cost concious and not too concerned with quality control of color. I frequently find multiple bolts of fabric where the sku’s are identical yet the color variance extreme. If Joann is hoping to sell this service to existing customers I think they’re targeting the wrong audience.Reply
Denise Beverlyon January 15, 2019 at 3:12 pm
WeaveUp has a completely different target audience to what Spoonflower might have. They are, in my understanding, mostly targeting hospitality and designers who might be part of that process. These would be hotels, convention centers, venues that might have many room decor or pieces of furniture upholstered the same.
I do sell more samples than anything at Spoonflower. Sometimes I see a buyer come back for a yard, but that is rarer. I have had a few makers purchase my designs and I hope to develop those relationships. I am sample poor from proofing my work at Spoonflower, I will take a long time to break even I am afraid.
I have been okay with the quality, though, so far the pieces I have purchased from My Fabric Designs have impressed me more. It hurts a bit to say that because Spoonflower is regional for me and I want to support them. WeaveUp is also regional and I hope to build my portfolio there even more.
I am not sure how the partnership with JoAnn is going to go, but I have not seen any sales yet from that connection. I was cautiously excited about it , but just not sure yet.See AlsoRibblr | Ribblr x JOANN - explore the fusion of craft retail and craft tech!How To Get Fabric From Joann - Knowing FabricReply
rachnaon January 15, 2019 at 11:54 pm
We will never know what sold at Joann from our account at weaveup . They never share any details with designers . Most POD sites do , I asked them when I made my first sale there but they are very secretive about it . It really works wonders if designer knows where the design was sold because it helps designer to creat better suited designs . Also there are no trends given by any sites but i feel trends are the competitions they have at spoonflower time and again
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Pam Cosperon February 4, 2021 at 8:42 pm
Hello Denise, Has any of the quality, pricing or commissions changed since you wrote this post a year ago?
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DeniseBeverlyon February 4, 2021 at 9:21 pm
No not that I am aware of. They are partnered with JoAnn still but we still don’t get designer credit and they choose what goes on site. right now my previews are horribly broken. Hopefully they will get them fixed soon. I have had a few sales, but, still not on par with Spoonflower. Commissions are still low through the JoAnn sales.
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Krystine Kercheron February 6, 2019 at 9:44 pm
WeaveUp appears to have similar issues with printing that Zazzle does for fabric. Zazzle mockups show light colors as very pale or faded.
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Denise Beverlyon February 7, 2019 at 1:05 pm
I will have to go back and check mine but I know all the samples I ordered for my self from Zazzle were spot on to my colors in my designs, except for one. I cannot remember the name of the fabric right now but it was a natural linen or something, the fabric is not white so the colors were off.
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Katyon March 9, 2019 at 5:58 am
You say “get a swatch.” Well, the swatch I wanted to order from the Joann POS service was priced at $8, and come to find out, plus $8 shipping. Really – $16 for one swatch? I think not.
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Denise Beverlyon August 14, 2019 at 3:15 pm
wow Katy that is crazy.
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Marie Gullyon August 14, 2019 at 1:06 pm
I am a fabric designer at both Spoonflower and Weaveup as well as a freelance designer for a textile company. The majority of my sales have been through Weaveup only when they partnered with Joann’s.
I have not submitted any further designs to Spoonflower and agree with most of the quality comments. I started there by creating tea towels that I give as gifts at Christmas.
I am still optimistic for the joann’s joining and will give it a longer change.Reply
Denise Beverlyon August 14, 2019 at 3:34 pm
Marie, I am glad you are seeing sales from the collaboration. I have not had any myself but have not added anything new in a while.
Spoonflower is rolling out another new printing technique they say will last longer.Reply
rachna singhon August 16, 2019 at 1:36 am
Marie Gully I would like to connect with you , i am also on weaveup . I feel i am selling a lot of designs on weaveup because of JOANN but the commissions are just 3 % so what we make is 0.07 to 0.09 USD per design . BY end of the month it may average to USD . I think in most cases buyers buy repeats and reproduce because never seen any sales repeating to larger lengths . I have a huge collection there .
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Marianna Kokorevaon January 27, 2022 at 9:09 pm
Marie, or anyone who can help with the answer 🙂 I am considering joining Spoonflower or Weaveup. Doesn’t SF mention on their site they pay close to 90% commission? All not true? Or proofs eat up all?
And if I do the artist work only and hire someone to make a seamless design, it’ll take long to recoup the money spent?
But I do want to put my designs out there – for use. And these POD sites seemed like a suitable option for a beginner, especially when SP links appeared on Amazon.
Thanks a lot!Reply
Rachnaon January 27, 2022 at 9:15 pm
Join Spoonflower , weaveup is too messed up in sharing designs with partners who recolor it and credit it to their own designers . I have proofs of the same .
Commissions are very low at weaveup as nil site sales only partner sales which gives around .07 cents for a swatch sale . SF gives better commissions . Yes one has to pay for test swatch so upload limited on your budget .
rachnadesign@gmail.com for further discussionReply
Marianna Kokorevaon January 27, 2022 at 9:25 pm
Thank you Rachna, for the answer and the mail. My mail is on the blog page if you click my name. But I might as well leave it here kokoreva_m@yahoo.com. Usually, forums don’t let one mention the email. But what the hell 🙂
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Marie Gullyon August 14, 2019 at 7:03 pm
Thank you Denise. I’d be interested to read about the new technique. Thank you for your response.
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Denise Beverlyon August 15, 2019 at 1:41 pm
I had my info a little off. According to a recent email:
By this fall we will be replacing our Ultra fabrics with new color technology.
This means more vibrant colors and prints that are truer to what you see on screen. Added bonus, they wash beautifully! We hope you love them as much as we do.I do know that the new Petal Cotton seems to be producing brighter more vibrant colors
than the Kona did.Reply
Marie Gullyon August 16, 2019 at 2:59 pm
That sounds much better. Thanks for the clarification. The colors are a big part of why customers customize 🙂
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Ron August 21, 2021 at 8:54 am
The latest on this topic is that designers of weaveup have basically been used as guinea pig . weaveup has licensed their designs to Joann without Joann giving any designers name on the artwork . now after year or so Joann in house designers are uploading their designs and they are being given attribution and their names are appearing in the tab in filters . I recently asked Weaveup to remove my complete portfolio of 500 plus designs because when I placed few of them on spoon flower the buyers reported them as rip offs from Joann . It has taken more than 3 months Already and designs are still there .Just putting it here
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Denise Beverlyon August 21, 2021 at 4:29 pm
You know I am aware of this situation and I do believe they will credit the designers. They have credited their own, however they may be waiting on WeaveUp to supply a list of names to connect to the other designs being used on the site. I checked mine and no it does not show my credit yet, however I know that will take time and I trust it is in the works as they have said it would be.
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Abby Glassenbergon August 23, 2021 at 8:12 am
It seems like the names of the designers have been absent from WeaveUp since this article was written in January 2019. Do I have that right?
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triciaon August 25, 2019 at 1:29 pm
Hi,
I was wondering if you could tell me which of the POD’s will print on nylon, specifically ripstop nylon. Or a water resistant polyester?
Thank you. I appreciate any and all leads.Reply
Fran B. Fibra Creativaon September 9, 2019 at 4:50 am
I design and sell fabrics printed by “traditional” textile printing companies in Europe and also on some POD sites such as Spoonflower. On POD sites, the not-so-vivid colors and stiffness issues typically occur when printing on natural fiber (cotton, linen), sadly for quilters and environment-conscious people like me. Polyesters usually print beautifully, by a technique called ink sublimation.
With digital printing, the inks are specific to the type of fiber. On POD sites, cotton and linens are usually printed with pigmented inks, a technique in which the inks remain at the surface of the fabric, thus the stiffness, which is more pronounced on dark or saturated colors, due to the quantity of inks needed to achieve the saturation. In fact, lighter designs, particularly designs with white backgrounds, have a much nicer look and feel.
The alternative to pigmented inks is reactive dyes, which sink into the fiber, producing no stiffness and a much better “hand”. However, the process is lenghtly, involving several steps: pre-treating the fabric substrate, then printing, heat-fixing, washing, and ironing. This is completely impractical for individual orders of a yard or less, and usually printing companies will have a minimal order of about 100 yards or more.
The traditional screen printing technique used by major fabric manufacturers also uses dyes that sink into the fabric, thus the better hand and saturation, but require runs of several hundred yards of a same design.
In short, for natural fibers, it’s a trade-off between the flexibility of very small orders (preferred by POD sites) and color and hand quality (favored by printing companies that cater to professionals and require minimal orders). So POD sites are indeed perfect for proofing designs before ordering large runs, as someone mentionned in this thread. The worrisome part: when a designer sells mostly swatches, it probably means people use thoses to copy the designs and have them printed in large quantity and lower cost — while hedging their bets, by choosing the designs that are higher ranked (i.e. liked by customers) on the POD sites.Reply
Denise Beverlyon April 3, 2021 at 3:28 pm
“The worrisome part: when a designer sells mostly swatches, it probably means people use thoses to copy the designs and have them printed in large quantity and lower cost — while hedging their bets, by choosing the designs that are higher ranked (i.e. liked by customers) on the POD sites.”
Yes this is a very worrisome thing, we find our designs on all sorts of products on Amazon especially. It is theft, plain and simple no matter what the person doing it may think.
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Dianne Bogradon May 24, 2020 at 7:47 am
interested in the quality of fabric designs are printed on
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locoon August 27, 2020 at 12:04 pm
How long did it take your fabric to arrive? I ordered some on August 16 and the other items from the order have arrived, but the fabric isn’t even marked as shipped.
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Desna Jenkinson April 3, 2021 at 3:22 pm
I am an obsessed seamstress for over 50 years. My sewing room is huge with at least ten machines, one being a 12 thread commercial embroidery machine. However, my separate fabric room is bigger. I am a fabric hoarder.
I primarily sew unique women’s clothes, custom costumes, figure skating dresses, and pageant wear. I am not a business. It is a passion and not something I want to make money off of. I do not quilt. My sewing fabric of choice since the mid 1980s is spandex.
I found Spoonflower ten years ago and have never have any issue with their color vibrancy or retention. Of course, I do not buy 100% cotton. The clothes I have made from their fabrics have held up through tons of wear and washing. I generally buy from them because I love the designs. Then I think about what I might like to make with it, and lastly consider what fabric substrate I think I need. Then as I usually do during my fabric store purchases, I buy about one yard more than I think I might need for the item that might get made. I just love having a huge variety to choose from to allow me to be creative in the moment.
From these posts, I get a feeling that isn’t how most home sewers use the POD service. I love the crazy, quirky, and wonderful design choices I find at Spoonflower and lose myself for hours searching and saving designs. I do not order swatches. I just jump in feet first because if it is fabric, in the end I’ll probably love it. That being said, I am not so sure I would like the JoAnns POD service, because it sounds like to me they select the designs that are offered thus narrowing the variety from all the designs offered by the designers to just a limited amount that are likely juried to appeal to the general public. So why would I pay POD cost for an ordinary design that may be similar in style to what I can find at their store for less?
I did custom design a fabric last spring to make some masks for the graduating class at the HS where I teach. This was cotton. The design process was fairly easy, especially for someone who had never tried it before. The colors resulted in a match to our school colors, and the size and scale I picked worked for the mask design I used. I was pleased with the results as were 30 seniors. But I am unlikely to custom design fabric for myself on a regular basis. My creative skills lie elsewhere.
I think the variety of POD stores can only add to creativity. As stated above (and very useful and informative) it appears each POD company seems to shine in one or two areas which allows for customer choice. I can see where the other companies, vs Spoonflower, might better serve the needs of an interior designer or quilter. I hope in the end the competition drives down prices and improves quality, but doesn’t ultimately shut down these businesses.
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Denise Beverlyon April 3, 2021 at 3:30 pm
Thank you for posting this message. As an artist on Spoonflower it is sometimes hard to explain the processes and the reasons for colors looking different or the need to wash fabrics to take away some of the stiffness from printing.
Glad to have you shopping on Spoonflower and being a positive voice.Reply
Denise Beverlyon April 3, 2021 at 3:35 pm
OH and as for JoAnn, yes they choose the designs and do not give us credit as artists/designers. They have recently been pushing their customizer more and more and more for people to do their own designs, pushing us further into the ocean of designs. We receive pennies – literally – for our commissions and they are held for nearly 6 weeks before we get paid. I was excited by the partnership at first but not so much now.
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Desna Jenkinson April 3, 2021 at 6:19 pm
Sorry to hear that. I design and create outfits, but have no talent for designing fabrics. I respect and LOVE looking at the massive selection of designs at Spoonflower and like knowing that someone is personally behind it sharing their artistry. Very often I get personal responses back from the fabric designers that I used. Besides a Thank you, they often ask for pictures of what I did with it. I have never shared any because I was concerned the picture could be used for other purposes, but after reading about the process and the designer perspective, I think I’ll share some photos now.
As far as the competitions on Spoonflower goes, I get the emails, but never vote. The designs are generally too mainstream for me so I don’t bother.
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Denise Beverlyon April 3, 2021 at 6:54 pm
Desna,
I am glad you mentioned the thank you and request for photos. Most of the time the designers just want to see how their fabrics are used for their own curiosity. Any of them who are asking to try to promote the fabric design SHOULD ask permission to post the images with credit back to you as the maker.I will be sure to ask that my fellow designer/artists do that in the future for any one they send that question to. We go back and forth or whether or not to even send thank you notes. Some makers do NOT like to get them. Some do and end up creating a good relationship with an artist that leads to other custom work.
I have only sent out one in the past two years, for a multiple yard sale. I got no further response so I was afraid I had offended the buyer. Its a fine line and balance that we still are not sure about.
Competitions are good I guess, it builds the porfolios and stretches us creatively. But not everyone likes to do them for various reasons. When there are 900 to 1000 entries it can be challenging in itself to look through them to vote.
Thank you for your kind words for the work we do as designers there.Reply
Reneeon July 12, 2022 at 11:31 am
Personally I don’tmind getting th followup email. And as you mentioned you can build a repore with a designer (nver know when you need sosmething unique).
WHen I reply I uually keep it on the light side to let them know I was not offended or annoyed by the followup. Maybe find an opening phrase that sets a light tone of the followup to aleve potential annoyance.
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Rise Briggson May 6, 2021 at 1:08 pm
I tried leaving a review for the fairly awful “Customizable” section. The fabrics are difficult to work with, and when they come, they do NOT look like what you ordered. I called Customer Service many times, and told them it will never work, as every single computer monitor is set to a different color balance. They do not listen. They do not care. They would not print my review. There are still no reviews on these customizable fabrics….
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Denise Beverlyon May 6, 2021 at 3:46 pm
I haven’t tried to use the actual tool on the site. I know JoAnn has chosen some of my designs and put them up for sale in that section. the fabrics were supposed to be printed by WeaveUp and their fabric has been really nice, at least the ones I had purchased.
maybe JoAnn has started printing elsewhere, I know my sales have dropped to zero for this month.Reply
Denise Beverlyon May 6, 2021 at 3:48 pm
excuse me for the month of April and May
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Rachnaon May 6, 2021 at 11:28 pm
The fabrics at Joann are different from Weaveup . There is a difference in price as well . This indicates that there is bound to be difference in quality . As a designer at weaveup my designs were used at Joann site when the collaboration started . There is no where any clarification where its being printed . In all probabilities its being printed by weaveup on material supplied by Joann . You can order a sample pack from weaveup and check on the fabric quality .as regards color variation is bound to happen .as a designer I use hex codes on weaveup . for this you need to buy a swatch for approval of your customized design . The basic issue is that all though customization is a tool for all to use but it can be best utilized by designers who have knowledge on repeats and color changes . what I see on my monitor will be different from what u see but the hexcode remains constant . you can just print that hex code on your home printer to see what you will get . there will still be a difference because of fabric quality . you can try searching on weaveup the design name and reach for that design and then order there also
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CSTon August 21, 2021 at 9:16 pm
Joann is now selling licensed patterns more and the name of my fabric has been changed to customizer . they have 40000 plus artworks and now designers can upload and sell their designs as well .
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Ron August 27, 2021 at 4:00 pm
Weaveup has given 40000 designs to a company in India . again no back link no attribution and this time no weave up customization tools .
https://www.symplico.com/blue-paisley-designstudio-materialised-com-106478.htmlThis is my design attribution to design studio materialized
And this has happened after my complete portfolio was removed from weave up upon my chasing them to remove it .
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Ron September 20, 2021 at 10:02 am
Latest update
Artist Attribution
Weaveup and Joann have woken up to the reality that artist have a right to their artwork .
Today I saw Joann site and found that a filter has been created in search section where weaveup designer names are appearing along with number of their uploaded designs . Clicking the name the artist entire range can be seen . The individual design still have no artist names .Also I could see in weaveup being mentioned somewhere on site in terms and conditions and agreement of uploading.
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Lucien Perrodinon August 16, 2022 at 4:07 pm
I have submitted about 250 fabric patterns on Weaveup in the last 6 weeks, but have heard nothing back, even after emailing.
Has anyone here had a similar experience?
Thanks so much!
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Tonya Hallon November 29, 2021 at 12:47 pm
Sorry I’m late to the party lol; I just came across this article. I ordered from Spoonflower many years ago and was so disappointed with the quality (especially for the price). A couple of months ago, I decided to try it again as I really wanted a particular fabric design. I was surprised that the quality had actually improved! It still didn’t seem to be very vibrant, but at least it didn’t look like it was printed on an inkjet home printer lol.
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Darla Hallmarkon March 8, 2022 at 2:40 pm
Kinda cool seeing my design here. (Shelly) I came here to learn more about how Weaveup is marketing our work, when I saw symplico.com’s affiliation (theft?)
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Denise Bever;yon March 8, 2022 at 2:44 pm
not theft. it was a partnership with WeaveUP but we were not notified.
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Rachnaon March 8, 2022 at 5:33 pm
Attributing designs to someone else other than the artist is not partnership but theft . See the posted links ..
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Denise Beverlyon March 8, 2022 at 2:45 pm
haha I spelled my own name wrong.
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Denise Beverlyon March 9, 2022 at 3:57 pm
WeaveUp acquired by JOANN, America’s largest fabric retailer.
I’m writing to you today with some news I think will be exciting for you, our artist community. This past Friday, WeaveUp was acquired by JOANN. JOANN became a customer of WeaveUp’s in 2017 and an investor in 2019. JOANN’s acquisition became the natural conclusion of a long and cooperative relationship.
As you know, JOANN and WeaveUp partnered years ago to introduce on-demand, customizable fabric to a broader group of sewists and crafters. And we wanted to make sure that independent artists like yourselves were able to take advantage of this growing market. Please know that this tighter relationship between our companies we will have the resources to make our platform even more successful for our artists.
In the short-term, we expect to continue business as usual, but we have big plans for the WeaveUp Platform and exciting new opportunities for our independent artists. So, stay tuned.Thank you for your faith in us and your willingness to share your art with us and the world.
Flint
President
WeaveUp, Inc.Reply
Reneeon July 12, 2022 at 11:51 am
Had not ever reviewed Weaveup & when started thiks article thought I might until I just saw where JoAnn’s bought them. That killed any interest for me.
Unfortunately, JoAnn’s is the only game in town around here for a fabric store (& there’only one & am in a big city) & I have grown to dispise it. ONLY if I am in an immediate need of thread, etc. will I venture to them.
That being said – as a designer on Spoonflower for a few years I have only had one bad experience with a fabric & color (can’t remember it now). But since Petal came to be it solved that. A suggestion to those that think it’s fading with initial wash to get sitffness out: wash with 1/2 to 1 cup of salt this will help retain all or most of the color. (I stock up on salt from dollor store to keep on hand just for this purpose).
My designs are more for my use in creating items for sale as a once a year “convention vendor” & are of a specific theme. This makes it a limited use, so my designs are currently private. Once I stop the “convention vendor” thing I’ll open up the designs – Not looking for major sales but no sense just letting them sit there. Of my research SF is still the better commission, eassiest to use & their customer service is super.
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Bamboo Baitson July 16, 2022 at 3:33 pm
Earlier in these comments there is the statement “… usually printing companies will have a minimal order of about 100 yards or more.” At the time of this writing – July 16, 2022 – what sources are there for obtaining no more than 100 yards of a fabric printed with your own design that; importantly, exhibits a print quality superior to all POD sources? Your specific references and experiences would be appreciated.
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Lynda Douglason August 2, 2022 at 3:04 pm
Stumbled on a different type of service, http://www.fabricsmiths.com. Their sign up is on request and took them 2 days for my account to be setup. They seem to be targeting ‘creative entrepreneurs’. Those wanting to create virtual products, who then go and sell their products, before returning to fabricsmiths to order. We’ve only used them for a few products (pillows, blankets, napkins, placemats), but no problems so far. They’ve just added fabric by the yard for both poly and natural fibers at GREAT prices ! I can’t comment on quailty of the fabric by the yard, as we haven’t tried it. Anyone else have expereince with them ?
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Cynthia L Floreson April 19, 2023 at 5:49 pm
How long does it take Joann to make a customized fabric from start to delivery
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Renee Krimmingeron April 19, 2023 at 6:08 pm
Not sure withJoAnns but check out Spoonflower – less than a week sometimes depending on your location. You can order swatches or fat uarters of the fabric with your design to get an idea of colors & material.
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Cynthia L Floreson April 19, 2023 at 11:29 pm
Thank you. I actually ordered my material today from Joann’s. I read since my question that it can take between 2 to 4 weeks.
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- JOANN Invests in Glowforge, Bringing Laser Cutting to the Mainstream Crafter - Craft Industry Alliance - […] increase customization options as a way to differentiate from ecommerce competitors. In December, JOANN launched MyFabric, a print-on-demand fabric…
