ernie k designs: Big a** prints - dealing with large print repeats

Sunday, May 7, 2017

Big a** prints - dealing with large print repeats

Big pattern repeats can hurt you.

My best practice is to trace another pattern piece, open out the fabric on the largest surface possible (that's not the floor, too old for that shit)

and start playing.

Good to have a marker to start at (see that red marker? That's where the pieces line up, on a lateral red line on the bust point level);

may I recommend the bust point, to keep any headlight effects away?

And it's friend, the butt point?
(sorry, no successful photos but you get the idea)
Tracing paper is great for auditioning this problem.

Some examples from the archives:

Getting the tassle to line up on that panel on this Miyake shirt required running the print crossways, and ate up yardage. Lucking I could use the spaces inbetween for the collar and the facings, things that don't need a motif or you can't see.

upper right corner is the back piece on the fold

I was running really short on Preciousssss yardage, so my biggest concern was cramming it all onto the fabric. But the big palm would work well on the back.

Upper back piece with motif centered mostly.

For the Dalek 5th Avenue in 2016, I sized the design on Spoonflower to fit my skirt pattern piece. I believe is this one of the great uses for Spoonflower printing; once I get the design honed, I can resize to fit my needs.

BTW, this process has gotten better since I did this

The world of upholstery has this one figured out

from http://carrscorner.com/repeatadjustment.php

This is kind of a blunt instrument. Upholstery doesn't use the bits inbetween to fill in pieces (those useful facings) and they don't piece stuff to fudge it, so there is definitely room for improvement in this chart. But you get the general idea. I'm geek enough to want to spend more time figuring out an estimator for yardage more complex than "Buy too damn much".

But so far on this coat, twice the amount is just going to squeak through. It's an 8 inch grid.

And it's not on grain. The grid's not even entirely square.
(wails a heartbroken and pathetic wail)

And did I mention it was translucent?

I used that red line to try to match up the pieces that would need lining up. A big grid pattern is going to scream YOU SCREWED UP if I don't try to line them up. So I laid out all the fabric (the big piece on the floor is folded lengthwise as it has the larger pieces on it) and walked back and forth and back and forth, adjusting and measuring. The piece on the table is laid out single layer, and this isn't the final layout. I traced more pieces, because it became apparent that I was going to need almost every inch of this yardage (I had about a square foot leftover). And paper is still cheaper than fabric, and easier to mend with tape.

But I did cut.