Finally a bridge has been created that connects my design world to my sewing world. It hasn’t come out of nowhere, though. For the last year I’ve been slowly upgrading from merely gawking at lovely fabrics to trying to design them. Learning how repeats work, studying the fabrics that I’ve purchased and loved too much to cut into, and trying to put myself back in my mother’s house as a child; picturing our bold floral shower curtain in the bathroom whose walls were covered in framed Georgia O’Keeffe prints (my mother was an artist with an offbeat sense of humor). In a way, this first mini collection of prints is very much a way of trying to get back to her, to look closer at the small but significant memories I have from when she was in my life.

Meet Mazy

Mazy, an oil painter, home cook, and self-proclaimed hippie has a garden to be experienced. Beyond the wildflowers and fresh snap beans is the spirit of a wild and free nature. Rich soil and elegant petals, budding tomatoes and tall, sturdy sunflowers. Mazy’s Wonderland celebrates walking barefoot through a glorious summer in full bloom.

Mood Board

Colorway No.1: Vintage Afternoon

I took a class on fabric design on CreativeBug and Lizzy House, an excellent designer, talks about how she hopes to be doing the work for the sewist that will be using her fabric:

“I like to think that when I color a collection that I’m doing a good job for you. I’m bringing together some fabrics for you, I’m actually finding things for you that would be useful in a lot of different ways because of how I’ve colored them, and then also because of the scale and the differences in the patterns..”

I like that thinking a lot, so I really pushed myself to make this first collection be not too matchy-matchy, and more of a cohesive curated collection of designs that unexpectedly go together. That’s how I felt among my mom’s fabric and linens, I knew she wasn’t going to use all of them in the same project, but they all looked so wildly good sitting on a shelf together.

A full fabric collection consists of roughly 8-12 designs, printed in three colorways – so my sweet little bunch of six in a single colorway is really just a taste of the puzzle of designing a collection. But I had to start somewhere. I’m going to keep building on this; it needs more blender prints and I’m dying to play with more palettes, but for now I love looking at it. It reminds me of everything I’m trying desperately to remember and feel again. To me these prints are Bob Dylan coming from inside the house while my skin gets tingly with sweat and mosquito bites in the backyard, crawling around to find which plant has the biggest pops of tomatoes.

Mockups

In my brain this collection is for quilters, but alas, the challenge is to work with the mockups the Photoshop gods provide us with.

To Mazy, wild and free.

Love, Dylan