Introducing my Batik Fabric Line - Pura Vida! 🌿

Pura Vida

Pura Vida, the Spanish phrase for “simple (or pure) life” encapsulates the Costa Rican culture. This line was inspired by not only the rich foliage, vibrant sunsets, mouthwatering food and phenomenal beaches of Central America, but also the true contentment felt when slowing down to enjoy life. Come explore Pura Vida with me and remind yourself to slow down enough to take in the beauty around you.

The Inspiration

When Windham floated the idea of doing a batik fabric line with their sister brand, Anthology Fabrics, I jumped at the opportunity. I have always loved sewing with batiks and was super excited to create a few crisp, saturated designs. I had just gotten home from Costa Rica when I started working on this line and had been inundated with colorful inspiration. I decided to tie in some designs I sketched while in Central America with some of my previous designs. Add in a whole lot of color and here we are! 

What is a Batik?

The practice of creating batik fabric originating in Indonesia 2000 years ago and is done by talented artisans to create beautiful, saturated, colorful designs and patterns. Wax is applied to the fabric in specific areas of the design by hand or using copper stamps and when the wax hardens, the fabric is submerged in dye. The wax prevents the dye from reaching the fibers. The fabric is then boiled to remove the wax, leaving the design.

The Process

The process of designing batiks was so much fun and a little different from designing cotton prints. I sent in designs that fit into a “stamp” size, decided how muddled I wanted them to be and picked more color combinations than you can imagine! “The more color options to choose from, the better” was the motto! But then narrowing it down was tough! I chose to keep the muddle factor low to give crisp, clean and saturated designs. Then the strikeoffs arrived and I had to narrow all the beautiful options down to make the line.

The Fabrics

Some of the geometric prints may look familiar, but I love that the whole hand-stamped batik process gave them new life and a completely different feel. Pura Vida also features some rainforest and tropical inspired prints such as the two leaf designs, the rainbow and sun motif, the wave style and the pineapple pattern. Pura Vida consists of 24 brightly pigmented colors, 3 low volumes, 1 grey and 4 dark charcoal fabrics. The number of colors was chosen so this line could work perfectly with some of our BOM designs - Arcadia Avenue, Cadence Court, Paradox Point and Graphic Jam.

The Bundles

Yardage of Pura Vida will be shipped to stores throughout the first few months of 2022. We are selling bundles of the line, all 32 fabrics, in sets of fat-quarters, half-yards and 1 yards. 

Check back tomorrow for a post featuring all the fun projects we have made with Pura Vida!