Scale Print Fabrics with Mermaids in Mind!

[Mermaid Wesley]

Hey all! I have been playing around with the idea of opening a Spoonflower store. I have a bunch of designs from some old tailmaking experiments, and since I have gotten better at doing digital art and stuff, I have made a few more designs.
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And here's a link to where you can see everything I am messing with: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/mermaid_wisty?sub_action=designs

I know we have talked about spoonflower before, (I have actually made a tail from spoonflower fabric before and it DOES work btw) but what do you guys think about this? Would you be interested?

[Mermaid Wesley]

Oh! and does anyone have any requests for this shape? I have light blue, purple, and a multi-colored pink, purple, blue so far.

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I'm proctoring a test at work so i have 4 hours of time to fill in a quiet classroom. Please help me entertain myself lol

[Mary Marine]

This is a great idea! As someone who has bought scale fabric before to make tails, I would totally buy from you if you had a pattern/color combo I liked. Looking at the pricing it would probably have to be a pattern I couldn't find somewhere else, like your realistic scales. I see the largest cut is 42" by X yards, but I don't know what fabric type would work best? Like which of these terms mean 4 way stretch spandex lol.

[Mermaid Wesley]

The one I have used before is Performance Knit, but then they came out with "Sport Lycra"! I haven't been able to test it yet, but I am excited to, since my current fabric tail is.... dying. It is pretty expensive, but considering the service they offer, I think its fair.

[Mary Marine]

Of your designs so far I'm most impressed by the realistic scales and pointed scales, least impressed by the fades. I think the more elaborate, unique, and/or realistic you can make your scale patterns the less expansive that material is going to feel! I know Spandex House has their scale pattern spandex at $13 per yard and they only have a semi realistic scale pattern in green and blue. $20 feels like a bargain, $25 is comfortable, $30+ hurts a little bit, but if I knew the material was good quality I'd pay it for a longer lasting tail.

[Agent Dragon]

I'll have to keep this in mind! I love the "pointed shades," they look really realistic.


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[Mermaid Wesley]

Thanks! Some of these, the fades, scatters, etc were made as tests before merfest 2014! I ended up not even using any of them, but have always wanted to go back to spoonflower! I don't get to control the pricing, and even I am hesitant at that 30+ price point. But if the quality is good, (I do plan on doing tests) I would definitely make myself a tail with one of my new "realistic" scale patterns. I already have ideas lol.

[Hydra1337]

I love the designs. <3

As a heads up I would DEFINITELY recommend getting the full color map printed on the sport lycra before you even buy swatches. I didn't and I totally regret it. Everything turned out too dark or had practically no contrast despite having obvious contrast on my computer screen and TV. Even turning my computer down to minimum brightness doesn't match how dark my swatches turned out. Also, my blue swatch turned out purple (like, darker than eggplant purple) because apparently that's how it prints on the sport lycra. I know my pictures make it look blue but in person it's definitely purple idk how that even happened. I know it looks like the lighting for the swatches isn't that great but that's how they look in person.

EDIT: I just realized the digital files have the wrong fluke design. I can't find the swatch or I'd take new pics. My bad. Either way the scales are the same.

[Mary Marine]

I figured you had no control over the pricing, but I wanted to give you my impression as a potential buyer. I am definitely one of those people who does a lot of shopping around before placing an order, and while price is a big consideration I am very willing to pay more for good quality and getting exactly what I want instead of settling. Most commercially available non-holographic scale pattern fabric has been either a very plain monochrome pattern or psychedelic neon rainbow colors, neither of which are exactly to my taste. I'm actually kind of surprised I haven't seen any mers doing this before, but perhaps the cost dissuaded them? Or maybe they're out there and I just haven't seen it? Even searching for mermaid, dragon, or fish scales on Spoonfower there aren't very many realistic 3D shaded scales, most are simple round scales in flat colors. Also, I think fabric being sold by someone in the mer community who has tested and made a tail with it might help sell it too.

[Mary Marine]

Anaaaad while typing my post Hydra posts those swatches. :doh: Hydra I take it you make scale fabric too? Cause those are designs are awesome!

[Hydra1337]

Haha thanks. Anyway, I started dabbling in fabric designs for the purpose of making tail skin fabric but I hit a big roadblock when this *angrily points at terrible swatch result* happened. Since then I've changed my scale designs to be more simplistic so they'll translate to fabric better. That's not something I considered when I added so many tiny details into my designs. Sorry for the slight derail, Mermaid Wesley, but I just wanted to add in my two cents since so far it seems like I'm the only one that's out swatches of sport lycra. I will say this about the fabric...it's REALLY nice. Like, it's super soft and it doesn't look like you'd have a huge issue with transparency unless the fabric is REALLY stretched.

[Mermaid Aika]

Hi! Just wanted to say that I love your designs, especially the 'realistic' shape ones! They look soo good!:)

[Mermaid Wesley]

Thanks! Yeah I do plan on ordering swatches for sure. I'm glad it's not too thin. It's weird how dark that came out! I also wouldn't be opposed to using the performance knit for myself, either. It's thin, but i could line it, you know?


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[Mermaid Wesley]

Hi! Just wanted to say that I love your designs, especially the 'realistic' shape ones! They look soo good!:)

Thanks :D


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[Hydra1337]

Thanks! Yeah I do plan on ordering swatches for sure. I'm glad it's not too thin. It's weird how dark that came out! I also wouldn't be opposed to using the performance knit for myself, either. It's thin, but i could line it, you know?


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I think I remember you posting performance knit swatches of red and purple scales in another thread. Would using plain ol' power mesh work with that?

[Mermaid Wesley]

I think I remember you posting performance knit swatches of red and purple scales in another thread. Would using plain ol' power mesh work with that?

That's right! I'm not sure. Powermesh isnt very opaque. I think I would have to find a legit swimwear liner.

[Mermaid Wesley]

Ehhhhhh I'm thinking I don't want to do this like for money. But I have these files. I'm probably gonna use one, but I haven't decided on the color. If anyone wants one of the PNGs of the files up on my spoonflower page, I will send them to you and you can get them printed through spoonflower. Its a 10% discount if you upload the design yourself too! All I ask is that you don't make the designs public, try to sell them, or claim their your own. And tell me I'm pretty and cool.
I HAVEN'T TESTED THEM SO NO GUARANTEES THEY LOOK GOOD PRINTED BTW

[Mermaid Wesley]

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Ooooooh i might use this for my next tail <3

[Mary Marine]

I'm loving the new realistic scale designs you added, and I'm definitely interested in files for the realistic natural brown and abyss. If I make a tail with them I'll order a test swatch and post photos so you can see how they printed!

[Mermaid Wesley]

I'm loving the new realistic scale designs you added, and I'm definitely interested in files for the realistic natural brown and abyss. If I make a tail with them I'll order a test swatch and post photos so you can see how they printed!

Cool! Will you send me your email via pm? the files are too big for the forum.


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[MermaidBrandie]

What program do you use to make the repeating tile?

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[Mermaid Wesley]

What program do you use to make the repeating tile?

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I just used a drawing program with a mirror tool. And a little math.


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