Designing a fabric pattern

There was much to enjoy about making the cushion covers for the couch.  Moving on from plywood to work with another material, attempting to sew for the first time since I was in school, sourcing foam and finding a suitable fabric with a pattern that would match the frame.  I knew the cushions would make or break the whole piece of furniture.  I also wanted to explore the possibilities of digital printing onto fabric.

My initial plan was actually to choose a patterned fabric from somewhere and ask an upholsterer to make the covers.  When the quotes came in at about $450 just for the labour, I thought it was worthwhile (and more fun) to tackle the it myself.

After spending hours in Spotlight and on various websites I couldn’t find a pattern I was happy with.  Like with many things, I wasn’t happy enough with what already existed in the world, so I took up the challenge of making something of my own to add to it.  Through online research I saw that companies now offer digital printing onto fabric, so with Adobe Illustrator at the ready, I started coming up with ideas.  

I wanted a pattern with at least a subtle link to something native Australian, which feels fresh and with a balance of detail and simplicity to complement that of the frame.  

I thought I could use triangles to represent shapes to echo the angular aspects of the frame.  I drew sketches of kangaroo paw in an attempt to convert them into a pattern.  These didn’t work.

Eventually I honed in on the idea of using a silhouette pattern so I searched for pictures of Australian native plants and flowers but I had a hard time finding one in a form that could be made into a silhouette.  Eventually I found a picture of a fake young eucalyptus branch that was perfect - I guess only people selling a manufactured eucalyptus branch would make the effort to take a photo with it arranged so nicely on a white background.

After a lot more work processing and developing this in Illustrator, I ended up happy with the pattern I’d designed:

I was now ready to use it for my couch design.