Continuing my series on digital fabric printing services, today I’m reviewing CottonBee. CottonBee is based in Poland and, as the name suggests, prints on all-natural cotton materials.
Fabric options & pricing
CottonBee’s catalogue of fabric options isn’t as extensive as some other players in the market, but offers a well-rounded selection of cotton wovens and knits in various weights. You can order a swatch book for a nominal fee.
Where CottonBee comes out on top out of all the services I’ve sampled is in their pricing, which is the lowest I’ve come across for cotton. Quantity discounts and student discounts are also available, but you have to contact their customer services to request these. Sample pricing:
Cotton cretonne: €14,90 / £13.90 per metre
Cotton satin: €17,90 / £16.90 per metre
I can recommend both the cretonne and satin for dressmaking. The cretonne is lightweight, good for summer garments - I’ve made a playsuit and would also use this fabric for dresses. The satin has a high thread count which gives it a good opacity, even in lighter colours, and a smooth, matte sheen. I’ve made two house dresses in the satin and found that it softens beautifully with laundering (as with all my me-made garments I wash on a gentle cycle at 30C and don’t tumble dry).
The cotton sateen has a close weave and a very slight sheen. It has a good body but the weight helps it drape nicely too, making it suitable for both 1940s and 1950s styles.
Order process and delivery
The order process at CottonBee follows the standard procedure - you can select your design from their in-house catalogue or upload your own, specify the DPI (the scale of the print), then choose your fabric.
The purchase process offers a lot of flexibility - you can even order in fractions of a metre, which is great to avoid waste (both fabric and financial!).
My order arrived within two weeks (from the other side of Europe), at a time when lockdown and postal issues were still presenting problems.
Colour and print quality
CottonBee materials are printed using eco friendly water-based, unscented pigment inks. The print is fixed using heat, and without chemicals or other fixatives.
The printed colours come out nicely, and reasonably true to how they appeared on my screen. The colours skew a touch ‘cooler’ than some other services I’ve tried (e.g. a peachy-pink came out pinker as opposed to peachier, and a turquoise came out on the bluer side). It’s not particularly noticeable until you put two swatches side by side, but be aware that if you’re looking for warm yellow undertones you might need to adjust the image file. Blacks are deep (with the caveat that none of my designs had a large flat area of black, just outlines).
The DPI is high: lines come out very sharp with minimal dye bleed - even to the extent that I had to revise some of my image files to make my outlines heavier!
I did run into a quality control issue with my order, in that there was spotting/speckling of black ink in areas of both lengths of fabric I ordered. I’m sure if I had contacted their customer services they would have been happy to help, but I was eager to start sewing and was able to cut around the faults as I had enough fabric. I should also be clear that I placed my order in April, as the pandemic / lockdowns were in full effect across Europe, so staff shortages my have been a factor.
Quality control issue seen on the fabric
Selling your designs
CottonBee does not currently provide a portal for designers to make their designs available to others so unfortunately you can’t shop my fabrics.
Verdict
I will definitely be using CottonBee again. They’re unbeatable on price, and I’m very happy with both their cretonne and cotton satin for dressmaking.
