A Backpack with Knock-off Sweet Caroline Fabric!!!

What would you do if you designed a fabric collection and then you saw a knock off version of your fabric on a product on Amazon?

It happened to me and I know I should be really mad, but I’m so flattered and in love with this backpack that I went ahead and bought one anyway!

 

 

‘Calligraphy’ was one of the prints in the Sweet Caroline fabric collection I curated with QT Fabrics. That particular print – ‘Calligraphy in taupe’ – sold out very quickly. Unfortunately, the entire collection is pretty much sold out now so I don’t know if your quilt shop would have any. You could always do this Amazon search to see if any other Sweet Caroline prints are still for sale.

I was trying to find some of this fabric on Amazon when I came across the backpack. I ordered it in the spring because we were hoping to have a family vacation this summer (ha ha – that never happened).

It took 3 entire months to arrive, so I’m pretty sure they are printing the fabric and making the backpacks on demand.

It looks like they enlarged the Sweet Caroline print a lot for the body of the bag – it looks fabulous. The side pockets have a smaller (but still enlarged) version of Sweet Caroline Calligraphy too.

Do you want to know the story behind this print? I told the art director at QT Fabrics that I really wanted to have a text print in the collection and asked her what she thought. In the company archives, someone found a very old handwritten note in French. They showed me and it was amazing. I worked with them to establish the scale, repeat, and colors so it could be printed on fabric. And that’s how we got the ‘Caligraphy’ print!

 

 

If you have any doubt that this is a stolen print, the name of the fabric is in the bag description.

Anyway, I was worried that the Chinese bag would be such poor quality that I couldn’t use it very much – but it’s actually pretty sturdy.

The accents are not real leather, of course. But they are reinforced with fabric so I don’t think they’ll rip.

The Amazon description claims that the straps have:

Massage cushion on both of the straps, make you comfortable even the backpack is very heavy.

That’s so funny! When I put on the backpack there was definitely no massage – not even padded straps, lol. But the straps are woven polyester strapping (vinyl only on the edges) so I don’t think they will come apart.

The entire bag is man-made materials like vinyl, polyester canvas, and polyester flannel on the inside. I wish it were leather, cotton canvas, and rip-stop poly interior, but oh well – it’s all mine.

So when people compliment me on my new backpack (if we ever go somewhere that I can use it), I can tell them that the fabric is mine too. 🙂

What would you do? Would you contact QT Fabrics so they can maybe make the manufacturer take the bag with stolen fabrics off Amazon?

Or would you buy one and tell everyone about it like I’m doing? It’s so pretty that I don’t want to take away someone else’s chance to have one. Keep in mind, my profit from fabric sales was minimal and now it’s sold out. Putting together a fabric collection was mainly a vanity project. I can’t wait to hear what you think!

xoxo,