Thistle and Fox
illustrations by Lauren Kelly on fabrics, wallpapers & handmade
Fabric F.A.Q
Me! I'm Lauren. The one woman sewing factory and fabric designer of Thistle and Fox.
When you send an email to Thistle and Fox, I'm the one who reads it, writes and sends a reply. When you place an order for something handmade, I'm the one who makes it and sends the parcel to you. When you purchase my fabrics you are supporting an independent designer and maker, so thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Illustration, design and making are my passions. When I read feedback and see the wonderful photos from customers who are loving using their handmade products from my little business I could not be happier!
You can read more About me and follow me on instagram @thistleandfox for a behind the scenes look at Thistle and Fox.
The majority of my fabrics are created in the United States by Spoonflower.
All of my designs are available on a stunning range of natural fibre fabrics and eco friendly textiles, custom printed on demand.
If you are located in Australia, my website & Etsy customers receive their fabric orders from the Durham North Carolina factory (free standard international shipping).
For customers located elsewhere in the world, please place your fabric orders via the Spoonflower website.
You can learn more about the fabric printing process & eco friendly practices on the Spoonflower website and in this blog post. In Feb 2021 they moved to a much larger location, allowing a more efficient production process. Read about it here:
https://blog.spoonflower.com/2021/02/factory-move/
For a full list of the types of fabric available on my website and printed by Spoonflower, please take a look at the Choosing Materials page
There is a section of my shop for fabrics Printed in Australia by Next State Print in Melbourne, an ECA accredited printing business with some of the most beautiful fabrics I've ever had the pleasure of sewing with.
These fabrics ship only within Australia at the moment.
A small selection of my most popular designs are available to order direct from their website using their handy print on demand online software, you can customize the scale of the print yourself!
I also have a small selection of my designs available for sale on fabric bases from a custom fabric printer in the UK called Fashion Formula. Yes, they ship worldwide.
Free shipping does not apply for fabric produced by Next State or Fashion Formula.
Yes to both!
I am happy to make simple adjustments to background colors or the scale of any of my existing designs.*
You'll need to contact me before checkout so I can make these changes for you before the fabric order is placed as it automatically goes into production when ordered via the Spoonflower site.
When contacting me please include in your message:
the name of the design ( a link to the design is even better!)
your color preference or
tell me how large or small (in inches or centimeters) you need the design to be. For example:
"I'd like to order 2 yards of the 'White Pony on Mint' with a baby pink background and I need each pony to be 1 inch wide."
* There is no charge for small changes to scale or background colour. For more extensive changes there may be a small fee to cover my time. Please get in touch if you're unsure.
How is fabric priced in your shop?
You may see the label "starting from $6"
The lowest price will most often be the cost of a sample swatch (a 20cm square = 8x8")
All other prices are 'by the yard' or 'by the metre' - this is specified in the description of each item.
A yard is 90cm in length x the width* of the fabric
A metre is 100cm in length x the width of the fabric
Various types of material can be chosen from the drop down menus which will alter the price shown. Some materials are heavy weight upholstery fabrics, some are lighter weight garment fabrics or specialty materials for activewear or swimwear.
* Fabric Width varies with each type of material but typically starts at 42" wide or 105cm, up to 118"/295cm wide for the extra wide width cotton sateens.
Fat quarters are typically 18" high x 21" wide (45x52cm) and are offered for sale as single fat quarters or a set of 4 or set of 8 fat quarters via specific listings in my shop. The better value option is to order a set of fat quarters rather than a single, as every panel is printed to order, a single fat quarter is priced higher than a Set of 4 - which can be printed on a single one yard panel of fabric, making more efficient use of the printable area of the fabric.
Why have some fabric prices changed lately?
When you place an order for any printed fabric on my website, I then order the printing through a third party: the fabric PRINTER. In most cases this will be Spoonflower USA (if the order has free shipping it's printed under my Spoonflower Pro membership) or Next State Print in Melbourne, AU (if you order a material specified as 'Printed in Australia').
Recent dramatic changes in the USD to AUD conversion rate resulted in many orders barely covering the cost of printing, and I wasn't earning anything for my time working on order fulfilment & customer service - hence, a price increase was needed.
In addition to this, some materials have recently become more costly to source or produce so there have been price increases with my suppliers as well. These changes also needed to be accounted for, which means unfortunately, some materials (mostly upholstery weight fabrics) are now in a higher price bracket.
I'm in the process of updating all my website products which could take a few weeks from mid April-May 2023. While these changes are being made, there may be a few minor hiccups with pricing in your shopping cart. My apologies for any confusion.
Reach out if you are having trouble placing an order. There's no 'team' here, it's just me: Lauren, the designer, owner, CEO, customer service manager, stock controller, marketing officer, spam deleter, snack maker and office pet walker.
TIPS FOR MAKING THE MOST OF THE CUSTOM PRINTED EXPERIENCE:
I highly recommend ordering direct from my Spoonflower profile whenever Spoonflower are running a sale (especially those free shipping events!) and sign up to my newsletter or watch my instagram account for updates and sales announcements.
Spoonflower also have the 'Fill-a-Yard' feature on their website and if you can make use of this for your projects, it can be a great way to order custom printed fabric in small amounts without wasting any yardage as you can print what you need on panels in various layouts on the same one or two yard piece of fabric!
Examples can be found on my blog (soon) << I'll update this with a link
For AU customers, ordering fabric printed in Australia may now keep costs down! If you are planning to order over $300AUD worth of fabric in one transaction, contact me for a free shipping code.
You can also order a selection of my designs direct from Next State Print here.
Clover & Co Fabrics also do custom print runs with a small selection of my portfolio prints...
And I am hoping to be able to release some new designs printed exclusively in Australia on some special materials for garment sewing in the near future.
Any questions, please reach out!
I would love to be able to offer competitive wholesale prices for my fabrics... unfortunately I'm still quite a tiny fish in an enormous pond.
If you would like to order larger quantities of my fabrics, I am happy to make a special listing for you here on my website.
Custom printed fabric costs alot to produce (more than 90% of the retail price you pay is the printing cost) As a designer I receive 10% minus the cost of processing your payment via my website.
I do not manufacture my own fabrics or print in bulk for my own use so all wholesale orders are custom printed on demand just for you and ship directly to you from the printer - all fabric orders placed in my shop and all fabric printed for my own use is produced in this way.
FABRIC WHOLESALE is possible at the following rates:
✔ BULK ORDERS of 20+ yards or metres
For fabric printed in the USA via Spoonflower (shipped worldwide)
10% off orders of 20+ yards of fabric
15% off orders of 50+ yards of fabric
20% off orders of 100+ yards of fabric
This can be any number of designs but must be ordered in a single transaction.
Free shipping applies to Spoonflower fabric ordered via my website.
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For fabric printed in Australia (shipped only within Australia)
Order 50 metres or more and receive 5% off.
No further discounts apply.
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You are welcome to license my designs if you wish to have your own base fabric printed if you have your own sources for doing this at a lower cost ☺️
Contact me with any further wholesale questions.
I'd love to hear from you!
Sorry, no. ALL fabric in my shop is printed on demand. This means there's no waste which is better for the environment and the design can be customized (design scale, orientation, colours) so it will be perfect for its intended use.
With a portfolio of over 2000 designs and more than 20 choices of materials to be printed on, I could not possibly keep them all in stock in my little studio.
Need a customization or want to order a design from my portfolio that you don't see in my shop? Get in touch.
No, I'm not a fabric printer. I'm a fabric designer and artist myself. I only sell fabric printed with my own designs.
You can set up your own artwork and print via the same print on demand services I use: Spoonflower (USA) or Next State Print (AU). There are many others available online but these are the two I have used often and trust to do a wonderful job.
No, I'm an artist, a surface pattern designer and a sewist.
I don't stock or sell wholesale fabric bases in my studio.
Everyone seems to be looking for white fabric to make sheets and pillowcases this year!
I can highly recommend the Wide Cotton Sateen 3.5oz from Spoonflower. You can buy the unprinted fabric there if you wish, or order my printed designs on this material.
Otherwise, you are looking for a fabric wholesaler who supplies the factories who create products for bedding brands. They will be tricky to track down... and I doubt you will be able to source these materials (and have them shipped) for less than the cost of the finished ready to use bedding from your local home decor store...
I am primarily an illustrator selling a few things printed with my designs on the side...
I don't print these fabrics myself - it would require a huge warehouse, hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment and stock... I'm a very small fish by comparison to the custom digital print houses I work with to create my own designs and have them printed on demand.
Some materials are printed by Spoonflower in the USA, some are printed in Australia by Next State Print. There are two sections of my website fabric shop for these two printing sources.
Digital printing is very different to screen printing. You can read all about the process here.
While some digital printers accept base materials sent to them by clients, not many offer this service and those that do charge accordingly.
You might like to check out the materials already on offer from the printers I work wth or I also know of a print on demand service in London - if you are interested I'm happy to point you in their direction.
FASHION FORMULA
CONTRADO