{"id":63,"date":"2009-06-26T13:48:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-26T17:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oliverands.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/principles-of-fabric-selection-look-at-the-supporting-fabrics-in-a-collection-not-necessarily-the-central-prints\/"},"modified":"2018-11-28T10:53:28","modified_gmt":"2018-11-28T15:53:28","slug":"principles-of-fabric-selection-look-at-the-supporting-fabrics-in-a-collection-not-necessarily-the-central-prints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/blog\/2009\/06\/principles-of-fabric-selection-look-at-the-supporting-fabrics-in-a-collection-not-necessarily-the-central-prints.html","title":{"rendered":"principles of fabric selection: look at the supporting fabrics in a collection, not necessarily the central prints"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a rule, most quilting fabric collections are comprised of a group of prints that are intended to work together. There is a formula to assembling a collection like this, and most groups work around one central print that holds the collection together. That print is usually larger in scale than the others, has more colors, and sets the tone for the group. As a result, the central print is often the print that attracts people to a collection.<\/p>\n

That central print is also the one I tend to avoid when I’m selecting fabrics to make Oliver + S garments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Isn\u2019t this <\/span>Birthday Party Dress<\/a> elegantly understated? I have no idea who designed these fabrics (I don\u2019t recall ever seeing them before), and that\u2019s one of the things that makes the dress work so well. I like it that I\u2019m not able to identify the prints.<\/span>
<\/span><\/div>\n

Why? Well, in part because it’s the most readily identifiable print. It’s the one that you’re most likely to see and think, “Oh, that’s a print by so-and-so.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> This <\/span>Tea Party Sundress<\/a> is made from a Heather Ross print. But the print is one of the supporting prints from this collection, not the central print. I like the sweet, little flowers.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

The central print is also often busier than the other prints in the collection, with more colors and a larger size. If you make a garment out of a central print, the finished piece of clothing can often be overwhelming–forcing people who see it to notice the dress before they notice the child. (So you can see that although these principles are separate, there is a lot of overlap between them.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This <\/span>Tea Party Sundress<\/a>, made by <\/span>Spool<\/a> in Philadelphia, was created from a supporting print in a Denyse Schmidt collection. I like how Spool has balanced the colors in the print with neutrals, adding in little pops of orange with the piping of the curved seam and with the buttons. <\/span>
<\/span><\/div>\n

I often find that the supporting prints in a collection–the prints that aren’t quite so bold, bright, and large in scale–are easier to work with and have a little more staying power. They don’t date as quickly or start to feel over-used as much as central prints do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This <\/span>2+2 top<\/a> serves as a great example of what you can do with a nice supporting print from a collection. It\u2019s not overly bold and flashy. But the print\u2019s tonal shades of purple make it work well as a shirt.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

Notice in all the examples I’ve chosen to illustrate this post that there is plenty of color and a wide variety of style among these selections. A garment can embrace color–even bold colors–and different motifs as long as they don’t overwhelm the design or the person wearing it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This 2+2 top<\/a> has been made in very bright yellow but in what\u2019s obviously a supporting print from a collection. The small scale of the print balances the brightness of the color. I like how the tab and collar trim don’t match perfectly with the print. It lends some visual interest to the top.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

For many of these garments, I can’t identify the designer of the fabric, which I think is a good thing. It’s not that fabric designers don’t deserve recognition and shouldn’t have a distinctive style. But when a garment is made from a very bold, large print in a signature style, chances are good that the child will get lost behind the clothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a rule, most quilting fabric collections are comprised of a group of prints that are intended to work together. There is a formula to assembling a collection like this, and most groups work around one central print that holds …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20687],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-principles-of-fabric-selection"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/1-710302.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5jZS5-11","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53,"url":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/blog\/2009\/08\/principles-of-fabric-selection-be-eclectic.html","url_meta":{"origin":63,"position":0},"title":"principles of fabric selection: be eclectic","author":"Liesl Gibson","date":"August 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Fabrics within a collection are made to coordinate with each other. But who said you have to stick within a collection and follow someone else's creative vision when you're selecting multiple fabrics for a garment?I think it's fun to mix things up and create your own matches across fabric collections.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "general post"","block_context":{"text":"general post","link":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/list\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oliverands.com\/community\/content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Bebe-774945.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":60,"url":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/blog\/2009\/05\/principles-of-fabric-selection_22.html","url_meta":{"origin":63,"position":1},"title":"principles of fabric selection: introduction","author":"Liesl Gibson","date":"May 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Every season at Quilt Market, the show's organizers sponsor a series of Schoolhouse presentations for shop owners who are interested in learning more on topics of interest to them. This season, Oliver + S led two Schoolhouse sessions. One of our talks focused on how savvy retailers can increase sales\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "general post"","block_context":{"text":"general post","link":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/list\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oliverands.com\/community\/content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/fabric2-778396.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3176,"url":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/blog\/2011\/10\/introducing-cape-ann.html","url_meta":{"origin":63,"position":2},"title":"introducing cape ann","author":"Liesl Gibson","date":"October 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's finally time to introduce my newest fabric collection for Moda, Cape Ann! I'm very excited to share these fabrics with you. Over the past few months you may have seen images of some of the prints, especially when we released our fall sewing patterns. But now that the fabrics\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "general post"","block_context":{"text":"general post","link":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/list\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oliverands.com\/community\/content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/fabric-wheel-logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10795,"url":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/blog\/2014\/04\/lisette-for-spotlight-new-fabrics.html","url_meta":{"origin":63,"position":3},"title":"lisette for spotlight: new fabrics!","author":"Liesl Gibson","date":"April 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We're happy to announce that the newest collection of Lisette fabrics is now available at all Spotlight stores in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.","rel":"","context":"In "general post"","block_context":{"text":"general post","link":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/list\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oliverands.com\/community\/content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/SpotlightStacks.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":49856,"url":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/blog\/2015\/09\/introducing-woodland-clearing-fabrics-with-kaufman.html","url_meta":{"origin":63,"position":4},"title":"introducing woodland clearing, fabrics with Kaufman","author":"Liesl Gibson","date":"September 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We're happy to announce Liesl's newest fabric collection, Woodland Clearing. The line, from Robert Kaufman, will be available in January 2016.","rel":"","context":"In "general post"","block_context":{"text":"general post","link":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/list\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oliverands.com\/community\/content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/woodland-clearing-mood-board-with-text.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9465,"url":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/blog\/2014\/01\/and-now-america-its-your-turn.html","url_meta":{"origin":63,"position":5},"title":"and now, america, it’s your turn","author":"Liesl Gibson","date":"January 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We're happy to announce that our new Spring 2014 Lisette fabric collection is now available at Jo-Ann stores across the United States.","rel":"","context":"In "general post"","block_context":{"text":"general post","link":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/list\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oliverands.com\/community\/content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/LisetteFabricStack.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67710,"href":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/67710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oliverands.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}