AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Convincing reproduction fabrics are often required for the treatment and interpretation of textile-based cultural heritage, from garments to historic house furnishings. The fabrication of such reproductions can require expertise and a significant investment of time and monetary resources. The recent opening of a gallery dedicated to historic dress at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (CWF) required the creation of a reproduction stomacher for a child’s gown, presenting the opportunity to explore low-cost and easily accessible methods for creating digitally printed reproduction textiles. Two avenues for digital printing were explored; yardage was custom printed by Spoonflower, an online print-on-demand company that permits custom designs to be uploaded for printing, and paper-backed cotton poplin marketed for use with home ink jet printers. Digital images of the gown’s damask textile were obtained by photographing a section of the skirt flat. The color-corrected images were uploaded to the Spoonflower website and printed yardage on two fabric types, cotton poplin and petal signature cotton, were ordered. Several options in a range of tones and saturations were printed on the paper-backed print-at-home cotton poplin fabric by CWF’s staff photographer. All three types of printed fabrics were evaluated for print quality, color match, ease and rate of acquisition, and overall cost. Oddy testing determined that all the digitally printed textiles were approved for permanent use with collections. The at-home printing option produced a higher quality printed textile with a finer resolution than the Spoonflower prints and working with in-house photography staff allowed for a quick turnaround time, rather than waiting for additional proofs to be printed and shipped by an out-of-state company. The material cost was roughly the same, though the print-at-home option provided greater flexibility for experimentation and color matching. Washing the at-home digitally printed textile according to the manufacturer’s instructions produced a slight shift in color, while the Spoonflower textiles had the same appearance before and after washing. The lightweight quality of the cotton substrates allowed the overall color of the digitally printed textiles to be manipulated by adding dyed cotton underlays to better match the original textile’s color. The print-at-home textile was successfully used to create a stomacher for short-term display with the gown.

This small case study provided valuable insight into options for low-cost digital printing of textile yardage. Both methods of printing produced textiles that do not produce harmful pollutants, making them acceptable for use near cultural heritage objects. The Spoonflower textiles had a more pixilated appearance than the print-at-home option and color matching was more challenging due to limitations of the Spoonflower photo manipulation software. One major limitation of the print-at-home option is the size of the cotton poplin substrate available for printing; commercially available sheets are limited to 8 ½” by 11”, sized to be used with at-home printers. The printed fabrics may be seamed, but this is not acceptable for all uses. Future avenues for experimentation may include Spoonflower printing on lighter weight fabrics that can be manipulated with underlays or other surface embellishments like textile paints.