Happy Monday

Happy Monday! I hope a good weekend was had by all. Mine was lovely, with a great combination of city visits and country walks. On Saturday I went to the Tower of London and I loved it! I hadn't been since I went on a school trip when I was about ten years old and I was very impressed by it. There is lots to see and even the views over London and the river are really spectacular from the ramparts. It reminded me of what a great city I live in. On Sunday I went for a lovely brisk walk in the Oxfordshire countryside, ending up at a pub for lunch. It's a stunning time of year and the leaves on the trees were all changing to vibrant shades of orange and red.

On Friday I ventured to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace to check out what's going on. It's always great to see everything under one roof, to see the fabrics I've designed and to also see what other people are doing.

It was great to see that bright colours were very popular. I loved the selection of scarves above and the use of the kantha stitching. I might use that technique for some of my Cheeky Leopard scarves.

It's always great to see the Liberty floral fabrics. They come in all shades and look so pretty lined up.

I love a folk-inspired print and have designed a few in the past which you can see on my website here. The one above is a lovely multi colour version.

There were a lot of quirky novelty prints at the show. I loved the polar bear print on yellow and the multi colour umbrellas.

Higgs and Higgs had a selection of lampshades made out of the Sophia fabrics I designed for Makower UK. They looked really pretty hanging up.

These cute panda bear heads would work well in a nursery. I love the gender-neutral yellow and mint green colour palette.

I came home with some beautiful sari fabrics from Bazaar. One piece is a vibrant pink colour and the other piece uses softer pinks. I love the combination.

 My sari purchases came in this pretty little bag, also made from sari fabric! I can't wait to get creative with the fabrics I bought and think both pieces would make stunning clutch bags.

Incredible ikats

Last week I posted an image on my Instagram account of some beautiful ikat fabrics I bought a while ago in the bazaars of Istanbul. I already have a few stunning clutch bags made from these fabrics, but recently decided to create some handbags too.

I love the characteristic blurred effect of the deign of the ikat fabrics, but also love the stunning bright colours that can be created. The blurred effect is caused because the design is dyed onto the yarns before the yarns are woven.

This pink bag is made from a stunning magenta pink design and I matched the base colour and the lining to the colour of the ikat silk colour.

I included a hidden magnetic closure on each bag to help keep items safe. The magnet is hidden inside a cotton flap on either side of the bag.

This blue bag has hints of turquoise in the ikat design and I matched the cotton base of the bag with that turquoise colour. The lining is the same colour turquoise and the canvas straps are a blue to match the blue in the ikat design.

Both bags are lightly padded using a wadding called Dream Green which is made from recycled plastic bottles!

I also have this stunning ikat clutch bag in my store which matches the handbag. It has an antique gold clasp and detachable chain handle that can be worn over the shoulder or across the body.

You can find more incredible ikat finds in my store here.

An afternoon at Alexandra Palace

Yesterday I trotted off to the stunning Alexandra Palace to check out the Knitting and Stitching show. I'm embarrassed to say I had never been to Alexandra Palace before and I was impressed by its size and location - a rather awesome Victorian building sitting on a hill in North London, with stunning views of the city below. It was a lovely warm and sunny autumn day yesterday and I felt like I was in a foreign city!

Of course the main reason for going to the show was to pick up some inspiring fabric pieces as well as to see what other fabrics trends were around and to touch base with some customers. I saw quite a few of the fabric designs I have worked on for Makower UK, and it was great to see some of the fabrics I'd designed made up into quilts and hangings.

I bought these fabrics from The African Fabric Shop, who sell a stunning variety of items from Africa. I homed in on the brighter colours and came away with a collection of pink and blue fabrics that use a combination of resist and screen printed techniques.

Selvedge had a stall there, displaying beautifully delicate crocheted items. 

The Silk Route stall was a ablaze with colour and I came home with a stunning selection of pinks, yellows and turquoises.

The ribbons below would make a perfect match with the silks I bought.

I love the fabrics from KSDP and the money raised from the sales goes to a very good cause.

My lovely friend Jo had a stall there called Bazaar, selling an amazing array of items from India. I gravitated towards the embroidered ribbons.

  Such a lovely selection of woodblocks!

Fabric Friday

Check out these moody blues for a moody Friday afternoon. The weather here in the UK has been despicable and has a lot to answer for! I'm just about ready to go and put a sweater on.....

These fabrics definitely lift my mood though. They are all blue and white cottons and all come from India, two from my friend Jo who has a shop called Bazaar, and one from my friend Laura who was given the fabric on a trip to Amritsar. All the fabrics use a resist technique to create their beautiful patterns. The patterns were created either with a block print or painted freehand and in some cases have been printed several times to create a layered effect.

 The white design would have been printed first onto plain white cotton, using some sort of resist, such as wax. 

While the wax has dried on the fabric, the fabric is dyed a light blue and then another design is painted onto the fabric also using a resist. The fabric is then dyed a darker blue. 

All the resist is then removed. If it's wax, it can be removed by placing absorbent paper, such as brown paper, on top of the fabric and using the heat of an iron to melt the wax off the fabric and onto the paper. So clever!

Happy Monday

What a beautiful weekend it was here in the UK! After days of grey skies and rainy weather, the sun came out and all was forgiven! I spent the weekend catching up with good friends, cooked good food and hung out in the garden. I also got busy with some sewing and came up with these three stunning gems, made from one of the saris that I bought from Bazaar a while ago.

Bazaar is run by my good friend Joanna Hall, who travels to India several times a year to source beautiful fabrics, jewellery, clothing etc to adorn yourself and your home. I went to one of her barn shows a while ago which you can read about here. While I was there, I stocked up on stunning fabrics, including an array of brightly coloured saris. I have finally started using them and this is the first attempt which I'm really happy with.

These three beauties are all made from the same sari. What I love about the saris, apart from the vibrant colours, is the fact that each one is about 5 yards long, so you get a lot of fabric to play with. They are all vintage saris, so have a story to tell. They have been carefully hand washed, and then cut out by me, incorporating the beautiful woven design into each clutch bag. You can find all three clutches in my store here.

The sari I used was mostly magenta pink, but had a green section at one end and this drew me to it.

I loved the teal green design against the pink so decided to give this clutch bag a teal lining.

The green of this clutch bag really makes me smile!

I couldn't resist adding a hot pink lining for a juicy flash of colour.

The original sari had a border edge to it, so I decided to incorporate that border into this clutch bag.

I carefully cut along each edge and then pieced it together with other magenta sections of the sari.

Fabric Friday

This Friday's fabric choice is a rather special one as it features fabrics that I bought from Joanna Hall, a dear friend of mine who I've known since college.

She runs a business called Bazaar which sells a range of women's clothing, textiles, jewellery, gifts and home furnishings sourced mostly from Rajasthan, India. Jo is from Kent, but has been working alongside crafts people in India for more than 19 years, and travels there twice a year to work closely with the artisans to create a beautiful range of items that she sells at her extravagant shows held in various locations in the UK.

The event I went to today was the Summer Chapel Sale held in a beautiful chapel in West Malling in Kent and will be open until Sunday 7th June. It's not to be missed!

Needless to say, I came back with a wide variety of beautiful fabrics, mostly stunning sari fabrics in shades of hot pink, purple and emerald. I can't wait to get creative with them....

Jo and her team spend four days decorating the chapel with stunning sari fabrics and wall hangings.

The fabrics below are a sample of what I bought.