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How to Combine Color, Scale, and Pattern to Create a Balanced Handmade Wardrobe
Dear Readers and Subscribers,
Mixing prints can turn an ordinary handmade garment into something distinctive, creative, and completely your own. Florals can be paired with stripes, dots can work with checks, and two different florals can even be used together successfully.
The secret is not simply finding two prints you like. Successful print mixing is about creating a relationship between the fabrics.
Color, print size, spacing, contrast, and placement all influence whether two fabrics look harmonious or compete for attention. Once you learn to look at these elements individually, mixing prints becomes much easier.
Think Like a Designer
Fashion designers don't necessarily look at every fabric as something that must be used by itself. They look for relationships between colors, shapes, textures, and proportions.
You can approach your fabric stash the same way.
Instead of asking only, "Do these two prints match?" try asking:
Do they share a color?
Are the prints different enough in scale?
Which print should be dominant?
Where will each print appear on the garment?
Does one print give the eye somewhere to rest?
How do the prints look against the person who will wear them?
These questions turn fabric selection into part of the design process.
Start With a Common Color
One of the easiest ways to mix prints successfully is to find a color that appears in both fabrics.
Imagine a navy floral containing small white flowers. A navy-and-white stripe can coordinate beautifully with it because the two prints already share a color story.
The prints don't have to contain exactly the same colors. One common color can sometimes be enough to visually connect them.
You can also pull a less obvious color from the main fabric. If a floral contains tiny touches of burgundy, for example, a second print featuring burgundy may bring out a color you hardly noticed before.
Pay Attention to the Size of the Print
Print scale is especially important when mixing fabrics.
Prints can generally be thought of as small, medium, or large scale.
A small-scale print contains relatively small motifs positioned fairly close together. Tiny florals, miniature dots and narrow checks are examples.
Medium-scale prints are more noticeable but don't dominate the entire fabric.
Large-scale prints contain larger flowers, shapes, leaves, geometric designs, or other motifs that immediately attract the eye.
The scale of a print can affect how we visually perceive the proportions of a garment and the person wearing it. Large, bold motifs tend to attract attention and can visually expand an area, particularly when they are high contrast or widely spaced. Small, closely spaced prints often create a more continuous visual surface and may appear less visually expansive.
However, there isn't a universal rule that every small print will make every person look slimmer or that every large print will make every person look heavier. Color contrast, motif spacing, garment shape, fabric drape, print placement, and individual proportions all contribute to the final effect.
This is why looking in the mirror is so valuable.
Hold the fabric against yourself or drape a larger piece over your body. Then step several feet away from the mirror. A print that looks wonderful when viewed six inches away on the cutting table can have a completely different effect when viewed across the room.
Mix Different Print Scales
One of the easiest designer tricks is to avoid making two prints compete at exactly the same visual scale.
Try pairing:
A large floral with a narrow stripe
A medium floral with tiny dots
A bold geometric print with a miniature check
A large botanical print with a small coordinating print
A medium print with a very subtle tone-on-tone design
One print becomes the star while the other plays a supporting role.
For example, imagine a blouse made primarily from a medium-scale floral. A tiny coordinating dot could be used for the collar, cuffs, inside yoke, pocket trim, or another small design detail.
The second fabric doesn't have to occupy half the garment to make an impact.
Where You Put the Print Matters
Print placement can be just as important as print size.
If you want to draw attention toward an area, that may be the perfect place for the more noticeable print. If you would rather an area visually recede, you might choose the quieter of the two fabrics there.
This gives the sewist another design tool.
A striking print could become sleeves while a quieter print forms the bodice.
A large floral might be the main fabric while a small stripe appears on the collar and cuffs.
A print could appear only as a pocket, yoke, placket, waistband, facing, or hem detail.
You are directing the viewer's eye through the garment.
Use Stripes as a Companion Print
Stripes are surprisingly versatile when mixing prints.
A stripe can almost behave like a solid when its colors coordinate with the primary fabric. Narrow stripes are particularly useful because they can provide contrast without overwhelming another print.
Try pairing stripes with florals, dots, novelty prints, botanicals, or even some checks.
The direction of the stripe creates another design opportunity. Stripes can be cut vertically, horizontally, or sometimes diagonally to emphasize a particular garment detail.
Don't Forget Polka Dots
Dots can also function as a useful companion fabric.
Tiny dots often provide just enough visual interest to contrast with a larger design without fighting for attention.
For example, a floral dress could have a dotted sash, collar, pocket lining, or sleeve cuff. The combination looks intentional when the fabrics share one or more colors.
Mixing Two Florals
Yes, florals can be mixed with florals.
The trick is usually to create enough difference between them.
Try a larger floral with a smaller floral rather than two similarly sized flower designs. Look for a shared color that visually connects the fabrics.
One floral can dominate while the second serves as an accent.
This technique can create a particularly artistic handmade garment because the fabric combination is unlikely to look exactly like something purchased off the rack.
Use Solids to Give Prints Some Breathing Room
Mixing prints doesn't mean every inch of a garment needs to contain a pattern.
A solid fabric can provide a visual resting place between two prints.
For example:
Floral bodice + solid waistband + striped skirt
Printed jacket + solid binding + contrasting printed pocket
Small-print blouse + solid collar + larger-print cuffs
The solid acts almost like punctuation between the prints.
Consider the Entire Outfit
A garment doesn't exist by itself once you put it on.
Suppose you're making a printed jacket. Before adding a second print, think about what you will wear underneath it.
If the jacket already combines several strong prints, a solid top and pants may provide the balance the outfit needs.
On the other hand, a subtly printed blouse could look wonderful underneath a jacket featuring a larger print if the colors and scales work together.
Design the outfit rather than looking only at the individual garment.
Step Away From the Fabric
One of the simplest ways to evaluate mixed prints is also one of the best.
Put the fabrics together and step away.
Look at them from several feet away rather than only examining them on the cutting table.
Squint slightly if necessary.
Which print do you notice first?
Do your eyes move naturally from one fabric to the other?
Does one print overwhelm everything else?
Do the colors connect?
Does the combination look deliberate or accidental?
Then hold the fabrics against yourself and look again.
You are doing exactly what an artist does when stepping away from a painting to see whether the colors and proportions are working together.
Experiment Before You Cut
Don't feel that your first fabric combination has to be your final decision.
Lay several possibilities together.
Fold fabrics so only the approximate amount that will appear in the garment is showing. A fabric that seems overwhelming when you see an entire yard of it may be perfect when only a two-inch cuff is visible.
Photograph different combinations with your phone. Looking at the photograph can sometimes make the balance—or imbalance—more obvious.
This is creative sewing.
You're experimenting with your materials before making the final decision, just as an artist experiments with colors before committing them to a painting.
Make the Pattern Your Starting Point
The illustration on a sewing pattern envelope is only one interpretation of that design.
Your fabric choices can completely change it.
A simple blouse pattern sewn in one fabric may look classic. Combine a floral body with striped cuffs and collar and it becomes playful and distinctive. Sew it again using a geometric print with carefully placed solid panels and it can look completely different.
The pattern hasn't changed.
The design decisions have.
There Is a Designer Hidden in Every Sewist
Learning to mix prints isn't about memorizing a long list of fashion rules. It's about training your eye to recognize balance.
Look at color.
Look at scale.
Look at placement.
Look at proportion.
Most importantly, look at the fabrics on yourself and consider how they make you feel in the garment.
Experiment before you cut. Move fabrics around. Try a smaller print. Turn a stripe in another direction. Add a solid. Remove something that feels too busy.
The more you experiment, the more confidently you'll begin making these decisions.
A sewing pattern gives you the foundation. Fabric gives you the creative possibilities.
What you do with them is where the designer in you begins to show.Ready to Mix Your Own Prints?
Ready To Mix Your Prints?
Put your designer’s eye to work by experimenting with coordinating fabrics for your next sewing project. A floral, stripe, check, dot, or contrasting print can completely change the personality of a handmade garment.
You don’t always need a large piece of fabric to make an impact. Fabric remnants can be perfect for pockets, collars, cuffs, yokes, facings, bindings, and other creative details.
Browse the fabric selections at The Needle Market and look for colors and prints you can combine in unexpected ways. Lay them together, experiment with scale and placement, and see where your creativity takes you.
The pattern is your starting point. The final design is yours.
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