Sweet Treats, a Summertime Fabric Collection

April 10, 2024

Illustrated popsicles and ice cream cones on a pink background with "YAY" candles and a cupcake

I love summer - the fun, the feeling of freedom (even if adults don’t have the associated summer break), the warm weather and the chance to play outside more, sunshine and longer days, frozen sweet treats, and easier dressing. Fewer layers?

Yes, please.

And what does all that mean for me? As a maker, I’m a lover of summertime fabric - I’m a sucker for a good summer-themed print. And if it features my favorite sweet treat, well then I’m sold.

Hello ice cream fabric!

The "Treat Yourself" Design Challenge

Three mini cupcakes with rainbow jimmies sprinkles on a bright pink background

Spoonflower’s second March 2024 Design Challenge featured a call to “Treat Yourself.” They asked designers to “think about foods you that you don’t always get to enjoy” and create “a rich design of tasty treats.” With summer fast approaching, what better way to combine my love of ice cream with my love of summertime than to create prints that double as both summertime fabric and ice cream fabric (with a side of sprinkles fabric thrown in for good measure)?

And thus, was born my Sweet Treats collection.

Creating a Summer Fabric Collection

I decided to focus on frozen sweet treats and summer motifs, including ice cream, popsicles, shining suns, sprinkles and confetti.

While I really love to sew, I also just really love to create and explore different forms of making and creating, which is one of the perks of designing patterns - I get to try lots of new techniques and formats and stretch myself.

I love a really tactile print and linocut is one way to scratch that itch for me. It embraces the imperfections of the handmade and leaves a very human, handcrafted impression. I decided to lean into the “treating myself” theme of this challenge and spend some quality time linocutting the motifs used in the collection. Summertime and ice cream are highly sensory experiences and, so too, is linocut. Match made.

Three linocut cutting tools with wooden handles and linocut stamps on a bright pink background surrounded by rainbow jimmies sprinkles

I carved ice cream cones, popsicles, sprinkles, shining suns, and confetti. All playful, some with cute anthropomorphic faces, and definitely cheerful. I’m not a master at linocutting by any means, so I did end up re-sketching the faces with a Posca marker and fixing them to look more like I wanted in Illustrator, but problem solving is a major part of the creative process. After inking, scanning, and digitizing, my summery, sugary sweet collection came to life.

Linocut cutting tools, an ink roller, linocut stamps, and linocut prints of a popsicle and an ice cream cone

The Sweet Treats Collection

The Sweet Treats collection features four prints in two color ways, three of which are available in two different sizes - a small and large size.

Spoonflower is a perfect place to pick up any or all prints from this festive summer fabric collection in an array of quilting cottons, apparel fabrics, or home decor fabrics to create your own summer-themed DIYs.

On the other hand, if you'd like to invite a bit of summer soiree into your home, but are lacking a bit of time to do it yourself, you can design your own summer dreams with Sweet Treats prints on finished home decor, such as cloth napkins, tablecloths, table runners, placemats, wallpaper, and more.