I was really excited to see Seersucker as one of the new fabrics that Spoonflower introduced recently. Seersucker is one of my favorite fabrics. I ordered a swatch printed in my Sea Stars design.
Print quality
The print quality looks great! This is a textured fabric, so I have a feeling that designs with very fine lines might not be as crisp as some other fabrics like sateen. This design printed great! The base fabric is a bright white, so the colors printed exactly as expected. I didn’t find the stripe texture to distract from the design, but that is definitely something to keep in mind when you choose a design to print. I suspect that a design with a strong narrow stripe in the design might fight a little with the woven texture of the fabric.
Fabric
Seersucker is a woven striped fabric, with the stripes running with the grain of the fabric. This is 100% cotton and prints 54 inches wide. The stripes are just about exactly 1/16 inch wide. They alternate with one stripe that is a tight weave and the next stripe is more open weave with a little space between the threads, so those stripes look slightly translucent. When you run your fingertips across the fabric, you can feel the texture of the stripes.
You can see that translucency a little in this photo. I put the fabric against my deep green cutting mat, but slipped a piece of white paper behind part of it.
Some seersuckers have a very pronounced rippled texture in the stripes, but this version is pretty smooth. I washed this swatch and it softened up slightly, but didn’t change texture or feel very much between washed and unwashed.
It is lightweight and has a nice drape. It feels very soft both on the printed and unprinted sides. It barely frayed at all on the cut edges when I washed it, which I like because it shows me that it’s a sturdy weave that should stitch up really nicely.
Shrinkage
I measured the swatch before and after washing. There was no shrinkage across the width of the fabric, but quite a bit lengthwise. My swatch was about 7 5/8 inches after washing, which is about 4-5%. That’s close to Spoonflower’s estimate on their fabric spec page.
Overall impression
I can’t wait to print some more and make some summer tops. This looks and feels like a really high quality fabric. The 54 inch width is a nice bonus because it means I can potentially do more with a single yard of fabric (vs a standard 42 inch quilting cotton). I think seersucker is best for light weight clothing. It could also make nice semi-sheer curtains or a shower curtain (with a liner behind).