Jackpot Pillows

Author: Tracy Sigler | Posted: July 15th, 2008 | | Tags: pillows, sewing, textiles | No Comments »

(See all the images in this Flickr set.)

“I want to tell everybody a true story.” — Gogol Bordello

Here is how we made this first run of Jackpot Pillows. If there’s anything else you want to know just leave your questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. Or maybe someone else will.

I was brainstorming ideas for triplet pillows and the somewhat obvious slot machine motif came to mind. We were tired of trying to get screenprinting to work for us on some other projects and planned to test digitally printed textiles. The long hunt began for just the right style of art.

Artwork

I found these killer vintage-style slot machine icon illustrations by Roy Konitzer at iStockPhoto. He also has a site at GiantRobot.com. Then I paid for the license that would allow us to use this artwork for commercial purposes. You can read all the gory details about the various licensing fees at iStockPhoto.com, but the bottom line is we paid roughly $80 for enough “credits” to do this and we had a few left over. Of course there are plenty of other sources for art, some free, if you are not going to create it yourself. Vecteezy.com is one such site.

I’m not an illustrator, and I had a very specific vision for these pillows. So, I looked for what I needed and Roy’s illustrations were exactly what I had imagined.

Manipulating the Image Colors in Illustrator

That said, they were multi-colored as you would expect and I wanted something monochrome. Our plan was to make the pillows available in four different colors: red, blue, green, brown. I wanted the images to be monochrome to tone things down a bit and make it easier to coordinate the pillows with the rest of whatever space they would be in. I took the illustrations into Illustrator where I used Live Color to convert all the colors to shades and tints of blues, reds, etc. Not as easy as it sounds, but after much tweaking and experimentation I achieved the desired colors.

Digitally Printed Textiles

This is a very cool technology with few of the limitations of tradition printing, but it’s not cheap. You can even print photographic images on fabrics, or “grounds,” such as cotton twills, sateens, etc. Also interesting is that pattern repeats can be as large as you want, at least in theory. In traditional printing the repeat can’t be longer than the circumference of the printing drum.

I contacted numerous companies that print custom fabric and found that most of them are not that interested in our business, for whatever reason. Sourcing is always painful, but I finally came across a couple companies that were very responsive and helpful. We did test prints of the Jackpot Pillow prints and decided we got the best color and customer service from Digital Textiles Northwest. Their web site may not have a lot of info, but trust me, they will do whatever it takes to get you exactly what you want.

Expect to pay in the vicinity of $40 per yard of printed fabric. It really depends on the ground fabric you choose and of course the company doing the printing. Prices vary widely. Look around.

Pillow Forms: The Search Continues…

What a hassle this has been. First we found someone (nearby!) that offered a green pillow that used a “biopolymer” with the brand name Ingeo. The sample we got looked and felt great. We (Mary) started making the pillow covers based on its size. Then, to make a long story short this product suddenly became unavailable, and we couldn’t find another supplier that had it. Eventually, pragmatism reared its head and we decided to use a typical polyfill pillow insert, or form. We’re still looking into sourcing a really green insert and have a couple leads for Ingeo and Kapok inserts. Freddy&Ma use kapok pillow forms from White Lotus. The Freddy&Ma pillow I have is very well made but the insert is a little too flat for my tastes, even for a “decorative” pillow.

As far as sizes and the order of production, my advice is to not produce the cases until you have an inventory of inserts or at least a very reliable, consistent source. If you can find the Ingeo pillow forms they will probably be close to $4 each in some reasonable quantity. We have no direct purchasing experience with kapok goods. From the companies I have talked to I would expect more Ingeo goods to be available from more sources soon.

Woven Labels

Another sourcing challenge when you are getting started. We looked at a lot of companies and went with Cruz Label. They were pretty responsive and helpful, and the final product was accurate and high quality. They send a proof or test to be approved before they manufacture the real deal. So, it takes a while, but you’ll get what you want. They’re on the west coast; we’re on the east coast. Ideally we will eventually be able to find someone closer to us.

A basic label is not that expensive, maybe $.25 each, but you’ll probably have to buy at least 500.

Production and Assembly

We assembled these Jackpot Pillows so that with every jackpot set the three other sides will all be different. Our intent is that people can choose the color, and jackpot triple they want, and we will provide non-matching flipsides for more variety. Mary decided that since the inserts are also washable that we should eschew using zippers. Instead, she hand stitches each pillow closed after inserting the pillow form.

Next time you jump on the couch will you land on a jackpot? That’s up to the last player of the couch slot machine.

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