Custom Canvas Tote with Yuli of Kiwi Bruin Creations

May 26, 2022

Hi everyone! I’m Yuli and I’m excited to be on the RCF blog with my first ever blog post.  

After reading about other people’s positive experiences with custom printing, I felt it was time for me give it a try.  As much as I love RCF fabrics for garments, I decided it would be fun to make something different this time.  Since summer is just around the corner and we live near the beach, I opted for a tote bag that is cute yet functional for a day out.

Mary had previously touched on the custom printing process in a recent RCF blog post.  Instead I will briefly share some of the lessons I learned.  My seamless design file is 12 inches by 12 inches and 300 dpi with a white background.  The designer provided both a JPG file with white background and a PNG file with transparent background. It was unclear to me which file should be used. Turns out, the white background is translated to blank space at pre-print so the white does not get printed.  In my case, either file would be acceptable.  This may be different if you use a full coverage design with a dark background.

When I uploaded the image on the custom printing page, the default scale was set at image width and height of 24 each with a DPI of 150.  Upon inquiring with the RCF team, I learned in order to preserve image quality, the dpi should not fall below 72.  I played around with the image size and set the image height and width both at 48 (DPI 75).  It looked good on the computer screen and I was ready to add to the cart. Luckily I did not because I soon realized that the ruler was intended for scaling and that I had to enlarge the screen proportion.  Turns out, I had almost ordered some giant otters (oops!). 

After appropriate adjustments to the image dimensions, I added the custom printing order to my cart, and checked out.  The fabric arrived and the otters were exactly the size that I intended them to be. 

The Pepin Tote by Noodlehead has been on my short list so I took the opportunity to sew it up.  The pattern includes slip pockets; because I like my bags with lots of organization space, I added an additional zippered pocket on the back and one more on the inside.  

The cotton canvas base for custom printing is 7 oz.  I prefer my bags to be more structured, so I interfaced with SF-101 and fusible fleece. When working with interfaced canvas fabric, I use microtex 90/14 needles and regular polyester thread.   

To maximize the print, I sewed a strip of the fabric to cotton webbing for the handles. Zipper pulls were chosen to compliment the nautical theme.  Rivets were added for both form and function. 

The custom printing process was not as complicated as I had expected. There are a number of fabric bases from which to choose for custom printing. I look forward to trying them in the future. 

Thanks for reading!  If you’d like to see more of my makes, you can find me over on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiwi.bruin.creations/

Yuli

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