Dec 13, 2017 | By Carly J. Cais
Hello friends!
I’ve been hard at work adding more full-repeat patterns to my Spoonflower, Roostery, and Society6 shops. As many of you may know already I absolutely love astrophotgraphy (shooting stars…and by that I mean shooting stars with a camera…as in a photographic shoot…and if there happen to be “shooting stars” captured in the photo…well, all the better!)
Sparkle Star Field Dark Galaxy Fabric (Spoonflower)
Many of my fabric patterns available at Spoonflower are photos taken by the NASA Hubble Telescope – where I’ve digitally altered the star fields to make them full-on repeats so that you could make an entire set of curtains, jumpsuit, or even SHEETS with these fabrics…with never-ending fields of stars, nebulas, and space dust. Though my own attempts at Milky Way and star photography don’t quite rival those of the Hubble Telescope…I do offer some of my star photography as art prints, tote bags, phone cases, and more!
Deep Purple Milky Way Stars Canvas Print (Society6)
I shot the above photo in the middle of the night in Arco, Idaho when I took my family on an RV trip from our home in Oregon – having NEVER driven an RV before and somehow managing to drive 14.5 hours in one day to get there!
But in the past year or so I’ve started to get back into collecting rocks – I had a massive collection as a child but really had very little technical knowledge of minerals – and as an adult I’ve rediscovered it and started to take collecting and identifying rocks and minerals more seriously. If it’s even possible, I love taking macro photos of crystals even more than I do taking photos of stars! Because then making those photos into full crystal repeats is immensely challenging…and I LOVE a challenge.
So far, I’ve produced full repeating patterns of:
Grey Hematite Quartz
Sadly this is not actual hematite – but quartz that is fumed with silver titanium so it fuses to the outside of the quartz crystal. Purchase Grey Hematite Crystal fabrics, wallpaper, and wrapping paper on Spoonflower here.
Aqua Aura Quartz
Another GOTCHA! crystal – this is also quartz, fumed with gold to create an aqua tint, resulting in an aurora borealis rainbow-like coating. Purchase Aqua Aura Crystal fabrics, wallpaper, and wrapping paper on Spoonflower here.
Light Blue Celestite Crystal
This is a true found-in-nature crystal – a beautiful pale blue with tiny crystalline structure throughout. It’s very brittle and I have to handle my specimen carefully! Purchase Light Blue Celestite Crystal fabrics, wallpaper, and wrapping paper on Spoonflower here.
I’m currently working on repeats of Apophyllite (white large crystals, like snow), Pyrite (brassy gold), Kyanite (blue and grey columnar crystals), and Mariposite (a rare veined green marble). Sign up for blog updates to see new patterns, or follow my shop on Spoonflower or follow me as an artist on Society6!
xo
Carly
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Feb 25, 2015 | By Carly J. Cais, From You
As you may know, I designed some fabrics awhile ago and offer them for sale by the yard through my shop on Spoonflower.
At first I created them because I couldn’t find any galaxy-print fabrics that I liked, and I wanted to play with the trending print. After I opened my shop though, people that I didn’t even know began purchasing my designs and using them in their own projects. I was so thrilled to see other creators designing with fabrics that I had spent so long laboring over their designs, their colors, their pattern repeat until my eyes were practically crossed!
Some people were kind enough to share with me some projects they had made:
Source
Like Yannick who goes by @yansev on Instagram, who made this amazing wakeboard cover using my palm tree fabric. (He’s working on a line of wakeboard covers coming in Summer 2015 – follow him on Instagram for updates!!) Whoever thought of making a wakeboard cover with Spoonflower fabric…isn’t that cool??!
And Maria, who made this galaxy-print tote she offers for sale in her Etsy shop 162Pens.
She also made this cute little pencil case/makeup pouch too.
Her craftsmanship is just beautiful…you should definitely check out the other pretty designs in her shop to ogle!
Thank you everyone for sharing your amazing projects with me! I’m so happy that you found these fabrics useful and fun for you:-)
Just to share some more ideas, I made this DIY Flat Bottomed Zip Pouch with my Sideways Palm Tree Tropical Photo Print in organic cotton sateen…
…this DIY Galaxy-Print Mini Skirt with my Alternate Blue Galaxy Print in organic cotton sateen…
…and this scrunchie with my Red Star Field Galaxy Print in silk crepe de chine.
In addition to fabrics, you can also get any of these prints available for sale as wallpaper or gift wrap too!
I’m so happy that something like Spoonflower exists, where fabric designers can made beautiful fabrics come to life, and people like me, who just like playing with pattern and color, can even aspire to be a fabric designer.
If any of you have used my Spoonflower fabrics for anything, please share your projects with me! I’d love to showcase them on Chic Steals 🙂
xo
Carly
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Aug 2, 2014 | By Carly J. Cais, DIY
A couple years ago I was desperately wanting some galaxy-print fabric since clothing featuring photorealistic prints of stars was just about everywhere. But I couldn’t find any fabric sellers that sold this particular print!! So I just Did It Myself, and designed a number of fun galaxy-print fabrics on Spoonflower.com, utilizing licensed Hubble Telescope images of star fields, quasars, Red Giants, planets, and galaxies. I worked on them in Photoshop to adjust the colorization and created seamless repeating patterns so they would be perfect for fabric (or even wallpaper!). 
In order to offer them for sale in my shop, I had to order test swatches to check the color and printing. For one of the designs I ordered a fat quarter of Organic Cotton Sateen (upper right in the photo above), not quite sure what I wanted to make with it but certain that I wanted a good enough amount to make something neat. And I finally hit upon a little mini-skirt (though had I ordered 1 yd, I would have had enough for front AND back!).
As it was I had to use some black cotton sateen for the back, but it turned out pretty well regardless and I’m just as pleased with it as if it had been galaxy-print all the way around.
I used Butterick Pattern 6834, chopping the length at View E (since that’s all the galaxy-print fabric I had). (I believe the pattern is no longer available.)
Here are some similar patterns you could use:
It sewed up quickly and was pressed and hemmed in no time, and now I have a fun mini-skirt for Summer!
If you’re looking for this same galaxy fabric, it is here:
Or other galaxy print fabrics: (click through to access my shop on Spoonflower)
They look great as blouses, T-shirts, even leggings (on stretch cotton jersey!!)
Stay tuned for my outfit featuring this skirt, coming soon to the blog.
Happy DIY’ing!
xo
Carly
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Nov 8, 2012 | By Carly J. Cais
I had designed some galaxy photo-print fabric last year on Spoonflower, ordered some swatches, and then sort of forgot about them. I made a silk tank top from one of the swatches, but didn’t do much beyond that.
Made with 1 fat quarter of my Red Star Field Galaxy design fabric, on Cotton Silk. It’s so lightweight and drapey!
A reader recently messaged me on Facebook about that galaxy-print fabric…which sent me into design overdrive! I then put together 8 more galaxy photo print fabric designs, and ordered test swatches on a variety of different fabrics to see how they printed.
I just got them in the mail today (obvs, judging by the fold lines still in them I haven’t ironed out…), and I’m thrilled with how they turned out!
The organic cotton sateen Alternate Blue Galaxy Print (above) I’m using as the backing to the skirt I had planned when I made my first round of galaxy-print fabric.
This is my Sparkle Star Field, printed on Cotton Poplin. Gorgeous as a tablecloth…but even better as a swingy skater skirt or pieced blouse! (I haven’t decided which just yet…)
Clockwise, from top left: Rainbow Star Field on basic combed cotton, Orange and Red Galaxy basic combed cotton, Purple Swirl Star Field Nebula on cotton silk, Pink and Green Burst Galaxy on organic cotton knit.
Of course the test swatches are too small to do much with; maybe I’ll make little purses or scrunchies with them. They were more to just see colors and make sure the repeat was correct.
And also my Purple Galaxy Nebula Burst fabric, which I got done on cotton silk.
I had a blast designing them all, which are originally from hi-res photos of galaxies, stars, and nebulae, completely repeating and seamless. Maybe you’d be interested in using something for your next DIY project? 
And if not, why not design your own fabric? Spoonflower offers a number of tools and how-tos to designing your own fabrics, including vector designs and making difficult repeating patterns.
Happy DIY’ing!
xoxox
Carly
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