Did you know that, alongside our fashion design and business lessons, we also offer courses in textile design?
Over the years, aspiring designers, students, and educators have repeatedly asked us how to create original textile prints and patterns. In response, we welcomed textile designer Lindsay Boehl to our instructor roster in 2021. She has since created six textile-design lessons for us, with five more coming soon.
Our newest lesson, Creating Art in Procreate for Textile Design, introduces the fundamentals of creating original artwork for textile applications using an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and Procreate. You’ll learn how to work with file resolution, use Procreate’s drawing tools, recolor artwork, and manage layers—building the skills needed to create simple motifs that can be exported and developed into repeat textile patterns.
ABOUT OUR INSTRUCTOR
(Image credit: University of Fashion)
Lindsay Boehl is a New York–based textile designer with experience across the full textile-development process. She began her career as a CAD artist at a textile converter, creating men’s shirting stripes, plaids, prints, and patterns for major brands including Ralph Lauren, American Eagle, and Wrangler.
Her expertise includes color matching, knit and woven textile design, technical fashion sketching, digital fabric printing, and garment production from concept through completion. Lindsay is now the owner of Elderberry Creative, a boutique studio specializing in surface-pattern design and custom creative projects.
In addition to her professional design practice, Lindsay is an adjunct professor in the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Center for Continuing & Professional Studies, where she teaches marketing and design courses, including UI Design and Photoshop.
ABOUT OUR TEXTILE SERIES
Current textile lessons at UoF. (Image credit: University of Fashion)
Build your textile-design skills step by step with our series of Adobe Illustrator lessons, designed to take you from the fundamentals of repeat patterns to finished woven and printed textile artwork.
Begin with Introduction to Textile Print Design, where you’ll learn the essentials of textile repeats and get started creating your own patterns in Adobe Illustrator.
Next, explore how inspiration becomes a finished print in Researching & Designing a Graphic Printed Textile. This lesson demonstrates how to conduct visual research and translate inspirational imagery—including the work of well-known artists—into an original graphic textile design.
Color is central to every successful textile collection. In Creating Color Palettes in Illustrator, you’ll learn how to develop swatches from seasonal color inspiration, save your palettes, and apply them throughout the design process.
Once your artwork is complete, Recoloring Textile Artwork in Illustrator shows you several ways to recolor textile designs in Illustrator. You’ll also create pattern swatches, color callouts, and polished final presentations that show every colorway in one document.
Finally, Creating a Woven Textile Pattern in Illustrator introduces the principles of woven textile construction. You’ll review warp and weft layouts, learn how to identify a single repeat within an existing pattern, and create your own plaid by building a warp and weft from scratch. Along the way, you’ll strengthen your command of Illustrator’s essential tools and features for textile design.
STAY TUNED…MORE TEXTILE LESSONS TO COME
Soon to be launched textile lessons at UoF. (Image credit: University of Fashion)
Stay tuned as we expand our textile-design curriculum with new lessons that will help you create original artwork, develop seamless repeats, and explore opportunities to sell your designs online.
Creating Symmetrical Artwork in Procreate for Textile Design
Learn how to use Procreate’s symmetry settings to create a balanced, symmetrical motif. You’ll also learn how to export a layered file for use in other programs, where it can be developed into repeating textile artwork.
Creating Textile Repeats in Photoshop
Discover how to transform individual artwork files into repeating patterns using Photoshop’s Pattern feature—an essential skill for textile and surface-pattern designers
Using Offset Filtering in Photoshop for Textiles
Learn how Photoshop’s Offset filter can help you identify and edit seams in a surface-pattern tile. Used alongside the Pattern feature, this technique makes it easier to turn almost any design file into seamless, repeat-ready artwork.
POD Sites and How They Work
Explore the world of print-on-demand, or POD, platforms and learn how they operate. This lesson explains how artists can upload artwork to free online storefronts, where designs are printed on products as orders are placed and artists earn commission-based income from each sale.
Spoonflower Overview for Textile Artists
Get to know Spoonflower, a leading print-on-demand platform for textile and surface-pattern designers. Learn how artists can upload original patterns for printing on a range of made-to-order products—including fabric, wallpaper, and home décor—and earn a commission on resulting sales.
