Why would you want to design your own fabric?  Here are six reasons:

1.  You’ve got a great idea for your curtains, new frock etc and no-one is selling fabric that comes close to your idea.  If you design your own, you can have any design, any colour – you are no longer tied to what’s available at this moment.

Shellington's winning design in the Triangles competition

2.  You can create co-ordinating fabrics.  One of the good things about ready-made clothing and homewares is that the trims match exactly and they often use the same design at a different scale.  You can sometimes do this yourself with what’s available in the shops, but not always.  If you custom print your own, then you can!

3.  You can be unique.  In these days of mass production, you can know that no-one else will be wearing your dress!

4.  You might want a fairly ordinary, simple-to-execute, design (stripes or spots, for instance) but want a colourway that’s unavailable in the shops.

5.  You can enter our design competitions.  The current theme is Tennis.

6.  It’s fun!  There are lots of ways to create your own designs and learning how to use them can be fun – if sometimes a little frustrating!

Sew Yeah's first fabric design, for our Winter competition.

So what are you waiting for?  If you need some inspiration, I have a Pinterest board called Inspiration, which has colour schemes and patterns to inspire your efforts.