Custom-printed fabric + button-down shirts = possible?

November 19, 2011 3:33 PM

Zany custom-printed fabric + button-down shirts = possible?

I love the options out there for making your own patterned cloth (e.g. Spoonflower), and I'd love to have some button-down work shirts to wear under my labcoat that use some zany patterned fabric (science!) I design myself. Do there exist any
a) online sites that will do the whole thing for me (design my fabric pattern and ship me the finished button-down shirt), or
b) workflows that can make this happen? (e.g. design/buy fabric from x, mail to y to have shirts made)?

Not options:
-Sewing myself (no machine, time, experience at making work-quality shirts; but here's an option for those with that ability)
-Local tailor (non-existent in my transportation radius)
-T-shirt printing places like Zazzle, etc. (I'm looking for patterned button-downs, not single-image t-shirts)
Googling along the lines of "custom printed patterned button-downs" provides button-downs with single embroidered or screen-printed logos
-I know of sites that create "custom" button-downs to your tailoring measurements (for example), but these all work with an extremely limited, ho-hum pool of fabric options (no zany periodic-table patterns) and aren't willing to work with mailed in fabric (reasonable). Those sites also tend to be expensive and/or require meeting up with a traveling tailor.

Etsy Alchemy would have been perfect for this, but that doesn't exist any more :(

Thanks!

posted by pavane to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (5 answers total)

Best answer: Etsy Alchemy sort of still exists, there is a Team for it now.

http://www.etsy.com/teams/7677/custom-order-corner-the-new-alchemy
posted by magnetsphere at 3:36 PM on November 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks: that's excellent! (I'd still welcome any recommendations for online sites I've missed, but the Etsy option is great since you can check out makers' ratings).
posted by pavane at 3:46 PM on November 19, 2011

Best answer: This is a great idea, and I may steal it for myself. I have an account with moderntailor.com and just sent them email asking if they could accomodate customer-provided fabrics. I'll report back when they reply. I've only purchased one shirt from them so far, but it seems nice enough (I chose them over the others only because they had an attractive first time buyer promotion, no idea how they compare on quality) and it's amazing to have something that actually fits me so I'll likely order more.
posted by contraption at 4:15 PM on November 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My wife has a sample book from Spoonflower, and to be honest there's no decent quality shirting fabric in it.
posted by Leon at 5:36 PM on November 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: from moderntailor.com:

Yes, you can send your own fabric. Labor cost starts at $25/shirt, exclusive of add-ons and shipping. It also depends on the complexity of your design and the fabric we'd be working on. You may create a shirt design, place a note that you'd be sending your own fabric but don't proceed to pay yet. We'll wait for the package and then revise the invoice for you.

posted by contraption at 3:10 PM on November 21, 2011