You can Print a Velvet Rug for the dollhouse??

(...with Spoonflower, Yes!) 

First let me apologize for my lateness and not keeping up with posting since February and to thank my readers for their patience!! (clap clap)

Onto the rugs...I have been trying to find rugs printed on velvet that look nicely scaled.  Most are just printed on a woven cotton and don’t have a nap.  I like the velvet as a base for a rug because I think it is more like a real rug.  So… I thought, why not try Spoonflower?  I love it for custom fabrics. You can find any design you want!  And if you want to design your own fabrics you can do that too (if you have the graphic gene)!  It takes a little bit of effort to learn how to use the website but worth the effort.

What is Spoonflower?  It’s a website where people who design fabric sell their designs (Sort of like Etsy for textile products).  You pick a design, then pick what type of fabric you want the design to be printed on, like cotton or linen or velvet, then decide how much you want to order (full yardage, fat quarter or sample).  You can even buy textile items printed from the design, instead of yardage – things like curtains, pillows, and duvets. 

If you want to create your own design, you make an account, upload your design, use a little gadget to arrange the design (like mirror image, tiled images, etc) then you can order your own design and have it printed on whatever type of fabric you want.  This is how I made the rugs (though I don’t sell them - you also have to be aware of copyrighted designs if you plan to sell them).  

Of course you could select any type of fabric to print your rugs.  I chose velvet.  There are two kinds of velvet available from Spoonflower.  See the photos below for comparison of the two types.  Both velvets cost about $39 per yard but you don’t need to pay that much.  I ordered just a fat quarter (yes you can get a fat quarter of velvet) for $20 but then there was a 50% off sale so I got it for $10.  I was able to print 5 rugs on one Fat Quarter for $10 plus shipping.  They run sales occasionally so watch their website for the sales (or get on their mailing list).  This sale was close to Thanksgiving 2021 (I think).

Here are some hints:

• Find photos of rugs you like "birds eye view" so it will be perfectly square on the corners.
  
• Start with the best quality photo you can  find (highest pixels)
• If you don’t want them all the same design, create a “collage” (I used Microsoft Paint tool) so they are all in one photo (you can see what mine looked like in the next photo below).
  
• Upload the photo or collage to Spoonflower.
• Select the Fabric (velvet) and Size/yardage from the drop downs (select “Fat Quarter”).
• It takes a little trial and error working with the uploading / arranging on the website.  Depending on the arrangement, parts of some rugs may get cut off but just try to optimize to get them to print as many full rugs as you can in the correct size.

Try these hints to get the rugs sized while displaying on the grid:

• Play with the “Repeat” and “Smaller” and “Bigger” buttons and “Change DPI” setting.  Check the displayed design to see if rugs will be correct size (it has a grid marked in inches).  Do this while you have the final size selected (fat quarter) so you can see exactly how many rugs you will get from that size of fabric.
  
• If that doesn’t work and you can't get the rug to be small or large enough, you might have to resize your original photo (change pixels width and height) and re-upload (save under a new name).   Generally, if you can't get it small enough, your photo is too big (reduce the pixel size) and vice-versa.
  
• Note that your Fat Quarter will have a different number of full rugs if you select a 45 inch wide fabric than if you select a 54 inch wide fabric. 
  

Photo of the Spoonflower editing screen:

Above you can see my rug collage as it would look if printed on a fat quarter.  The “Celosia” velvet is slightly more transparent than “Performance” velvet (you can see the cutting mat through the Celosia velvet). 

Below are two fat quarters showing both types of velvet.  The Celosia (on top) has more of a nap, like plush velvets.  It is woven, has a slight sheen and a little thinner than the Performance.  The Performance velvet (bottom) seems to be non-woven, sort of like soft suede cloth, very white, slightly thicker and more opaque than the Celosia.  The photo below shows both fat quarters overlapped.  I think the design is a little brighter and crisper on the Performance velvet.  But my preference for miniature rugs would be the Celosia due to having a plush nap or pile and warp and weft threads you can see. 

To finish the rug after cutting it and trimming, I glued 6 strand embroidery floss around the edge using a fine tip glue applicator (fabric or white glue) so I could apply the glue to the very thin edge of the velvet.  It was hard to get it to stay on.  I only did about half the side of a rug at a time and let it sit a while to make sure it got stuck on. 

For fringe, I had some linen upholstery fabric where I had trimmed off the selvage.  It had a perfect fringed edge (glad I don't throw anything away!).  So I trimmed off a little and glued it on as fringe.

Resources: Pink rug – from www.esmailirugs.com; other rug photos from various rug manufacturer websites.  The finished rug in the photos was made from the Performance Velvet on the Spoonflower website.

I hope this inspires my readers to check out Spoonflower!  Leave a comment and tell me how you might use Spoonflower for miniatures! Maybe print some lampshades?

 

 

Tutorial - Hand Colored Rugs on Velvet

Some time ago I saw some lovely rugs from the 1980s on Ebay made by Ione Van Beckum and advertised as “hand painted”.  I was amazed at the detail – intricate designs in lovely colors.  I wondered how she did this with paint on velvet type cloth.  I looked up an article about her in Nutshell News (April 1981, p. 38 if you have it) and attempted to use her techniques to create my own rug.

One of Ione Van Beckum's rugs

Nutshell News article about Ione Van Beckum

I realize that I am no Ione Van Beckum!  Her colors are so subtle, her borders so perfectly even and her ovals perfectly shaped.  But I will share how I did my version  - the round scalloped one shown at the top of this blog (along with hints from the article).

1)    According to the article, she used cotton velvet or no-wale corduroy (I found off-white cotton velvet.)

2)    She backs it with “muslin sewn on with tiny little stitches” .
I didn’t back my velvet.  But I did use muslin (double layer) to make fringe (see further down). 
To get the scalloped shape I created a pattern using drawing tools in Microsoft Word (it was not easy).  I cut the rug out then sectioned it (using water erasable sewing marker) so the design could be spread out evenly.

3)    She paints the design using waterproof marking pens.
I looked for permanent markers and had a hard time finding delicate colors.  Office Depot sells fine point Sharpie pens in many colors.  But so many of those were bright and dark colors.
Finally I found some more delicate colors on Amazon by “Bic” brand.  I purchased a 36 count set called “Fashion Colors” in “Ultra Fine” tip size.  Though I can see where a wider tip would come in handy for shading in larger areas.  I didn’t buy any of the wider tip though.

 BIC Ultra Fine Markers

I tested colors by marking each color on my fabric and writing the name of the color so I could remember which was which.  Sometimes the caps didn’t match the actual color when written on the velvet.

I also practiced making different designs and motifs:

4)    She draws the designs free-hand (how did she do that??)
I drew some by hand (scrolly border) but used some paper patterns to create sort of a “stencil” so I could make my repeat motifs the same size and shape.  You can see in the following photos.  I used light and dark tones for shading and adding details.  The photos show the colors of pens I used.

 

(Moonstone Yellow used for scrolly design)

The plan was to create two different designs, each on half of the rug.  One was more of a border and the other had a couple of different scroll French style motifs.  This was kind of a practice rug.  But I ended up using it in a dome project where half the rug was in one room and the other half in the other room (you’ll see in later photos).

5)    She applies the colors in tiny dots to assure even shading.  You can see this in the photo of Ione’s rug but I didn’t do this.  I didn’t really fill in any background.

6)    To fringe a rug, she pulls threads from both the velvet and muslin, carefully brushing out the pile.
I made my fringe by folding over a length of muslin and fraying the raw edges (two thicknesses).  I then cut the fringe straight and glued it around the scallops of my rug. I covered the edge with unraveled bunka (below).

7)    She then ages the rug with a pale beige marking pen. (I didn’t age my rug)
In the photos below you can see my finished rug.  Much simpler than Ione’s but she probably took more time than I did.  This is a simple technique if you can use some stencils or patterns and have the pens in colors you need.

Here is a better view of the side with the scrolly motifs:

Here are some more photos of other rugs by Ione.  She is a very talented lady.  The oval one is from my own collection.

 Next blog - maybe a slipper chair??