find elegant ladies posing in ballgowns.
If you look closely at a vintage novelty print fabric, even one that comprises the same basic pattern elements repeated several times, there are usually several slightly different versions of the motifs. This helps give those original vintage designs a sense of movement. Modern prints (especially in cheaper fashion) produced with high-tech copy-paste software lack the same level of variety within the pattern repeat, and as a result can sometimes feel a bit static by comparison. In my quest to be authentic with my ‘vintage’ fabric designs, I try to follow this principle, and include several variations to each pattern element within the repeat. Often the differences are not even obvious at first glance, but it helps to add a bit more interest to the overall feel of the design. See if you can spot the differences in this fabric design! This paisley was loosely inspired by an illustration on a fashion advert from an original 1940s magazine. I thought the idea of having little dancing ladies within paisleys was awesome, and used that as a springboard for my design process. Following lots of Pinterest research into 1940s paisley patterns, I arrived a pattern featuring lacy paisley shapes with a floral border. Within each one poses an elegant ballgown-clad lady. Roses and rosebuds are scattered between the paisleys.