New Desi Blanket Collection

Our new Desi blanket collection is coming along nicely.  We hope to have the blankets ready for launch in September.  On his last trip to Gujarat, Graham met Shamji Vankar, master weaver of fine woollen textiles.  Shamji was filmed recently for BBC's Hidden Treasures of Indian Art, and interviewed by Griff Rhys Jones.  In this excerpt, Shamji appears about 12 mins in (although I would recommend watching the whole 60 min programme if you have time!).  His family run a weaving cooperative which employs over 90 local artisans, and is committed to teaching the handloom craft as a viable economic opportunity.

Inspired by the natural dyes used in our Narayan collection, we wanted to exclusively use natural dyes again in this collection.  

We have asked our friends at SEWA to embellish the woollen lengths with several lines of traditional embroidered stitching running the length of the blanket.  I refer to these lines as train-tracks, but I must ask our artisans the proper name for this stitch!  We have sourced naturally dyed woollen embroidery yarns from Gujarat, and will use several colours in each blanket.  Graham will finalise the designs and colours when he visits Gujarat next month.

There will be two sizes of blankets - the smaller throws will be 120 x 180cm, just right for throwing over the end of the bed, or for snuggling under on the sofa, and larger blankets of 180 x 220cm, which will be large enough to cover a king-size bed.

The throws will be available in 5 colours - indigo blue, Lac red, Khaki, chocolate brown and natural cream, and the large blankets will be multicoloured in two colourways - Lac red, Khaki and chocolate brown, or Indigo, Khaki and chocolate brown. 

We'd love your feedback on the collection?  Which is your favourite colour? 

Sneak Preview: New Wool Blankets

We're currently working on a new collection of wool blankets which will be woven in Gujarat, and embroidered by our friends at SEWA (the amazing embroiderers behind our (Peacock Sportif collection).

Our starting point is some beautiful wool fabric woven by a master weaver in Gujarat whom Graham discovered on one of his earlier trips to the region.  The wool is dyed with natural plant dyes, such as the exotically named Madder, which gives the deep red colour in the photograph.

The fabric is woven in strips, and then several strips are sewn together to create blankets and throws large enough to cover a bed, or wrap around yourself in front of the telly.

We wanted to continue the natural colours into the embroidered embellishment.  A traditional stitch, passed down through generations of women in the Kutch region, is used to add a lively touch to the gorgeous fabric.  

The blankets are still a work in progress, but we hope to have them ready later this year to coincide with the colder months.  

Join our mailing list if you would like to know when they are launched!

New basket weaving from Swaziland

 

These vibrant and striking baskets are the handiwork of weavers in rural Swaziland.  Pioneering company Gone Rural are dedicated to creating sustainable employment for over 750 female home-based workers.  Under the directorship of Philippa Thorne, Gone Rural are redefining the traditional Swazi art of grass weaving and plaiting.   Bales of local Lutindzi grass are delivered to the women to hand weave into colourful baskets and home accessories, empowering them with a sustainable, self-employed income.  The zig-zag designs pictured are clearly influenced by Thorne's period working for Missoni, after graduating from London's Central St Martins School of Art.

I discovered these wonderful pieces at Habitat's Platform Gallery, where the current Interwoven exhibition juxtaposes Thorne's Gone Rural work with that of four other recent St Martins graduates: Jane Harper, Coralie Bonnet, Lucie Libotte and Nadia‐Anne Ricketts.  The exhibition endeavours to illustrate that the ancient art of weaving has embraced new environments, new technologies and innovative creative practices.

After spending days with weaver Siphiwe Mngometulu and her family in rural Swaziland, Thorne and her Gone Rural team developed a collection of unique, conceptual pieces entitled 'Biography Baskets'.  Each basket reveals moving truths about 3 women from Siphiwe's family.  Traditional hand craft techniques have at the same time been revived and reinterpreted by the women who span 3 generations.  Elements such as animal bone, discarded jerry cans, scraps of fabric and clay beads are interwoven with grasses and other plant fibres to produce the monumental pieces.

Interwoven is at the Habitat Platform Gallery, Kings Road, London until 28th April.

Gone Rural's baskets are available from Shake the Dust.

PechaKucha Night at the Design Museum

Graham Hollick, our designer, was invited to speak at London's Design Museum last week at the PechaKucha x Fair Trade talk.  Organised by illustrator Chris Haughton, the quick-fire talk was given by 10 designers, entrepreneurs and organisations involved in ethical and sustainable trading.  Some of the designers were directly involved in Chris's project to produce a range of fair trade hand-knotted rugs in Nepal for his company Node (read more in our blog post here), whilst others, like Stitch by Stitch, spoke about creative projects they'd undertaken applying the principles of fair trade. 

The PechaKucha format allows each speaker to show 20 slides, each for just 20 seconds, which ensures a concise, waffle-free presentation!  Here, we are pleased to share Graham's presentation about the fascinating projects which led to our Peacock Sportif and Narayan textile collections:

Design Museum launches fair trade rug collection

Launching next week at the Design Museum, London, is a collection of 18 handmade fair trade rugs, designed by 18 artists.  The project is the brainchild of Chris Haughton, children's book author and illustrator who has worked in fair trade for the past 9 years.  He set up Node in 2010, a non-profit, social business producing rugs.

Rug design by Sanna Annukka

Rug design by Chamo

Chris worked with the Kumbeshwar Technical School in Kathmandu, Nepal, to produce the hand-knotted rugs.  KTS was founded by Siddhi Bahadur Khadgi in 1983.   Khadgi was appalled by the fate of members of the "Podee", the lowest caste in Nepal (also referred to as "untouchables") whose role in the local community is to clean the streets before dawn, lest others catch sight of them, which is considered bad luck.  The family studied how to work with the "podees" and set about using their wealth to help them out of poverty, by setting up a weaving school for adults.

As well as fair wages, the adult weavers are given an education.  The profits from the sales of their rugs support a school for 260 children, and an orphanage.  

The collection of rugs will sell from the Design Museum shop and online.  The artists were chosen for the diversity of their design work, and its graphic suitability to rug-making.  They include Donna Wilson - Elle Decoration's British Designer of the Year 2011; Sanna Annukka - the Finnish artist well known for her prints and textile designs for Marimekko; Jon Klassen, illustrator and author of the New York Times bestseller "I want my hat back", and graphic design studio Neasden Control Centre.

The rugs are produced using a traditional Tibetan hand-knotting technique.  Pure Tibetan wool is hand spun and hand dyed with natural, non-polluting dyes.  Each design is made in a limited edition of 10.  Node will also make one-off rugs.

Stitch by Stitch is honoured to have been invited to talk at the Pecha Kucha x Fair Trade talk on 4 March at the Design Museum.  Speakers include some of the artists who worked on the Node project, and others, like ourselves, working in a sustainable way and in the spirit of fair trade.

Modern Rustic at Home London

Home, one of London's flashiest homewares and interior accessories trade shows kicked off the show season this January. It always manages to exhibit an interesting mix of large, international manufacturers and small, home-grown designers. This year, I saw a definite trend towards natural materials and colours, and an interest in craftsmanship. A trend we're loving, and values close to Stitch by Stitch's heart.

Mindful cushions, Waffle

Launching at Home, and deserved winner of the Folklore stand bursary for sustainable design, Ciara McGarrity produces these gorgeous waffle fabric cushions in subtle hues of grey and white, shot through with lines of bright wool. Ciara's passion for hand-woven textiles was ignited whilst travelling in south west India.  Back home, Ciara discovered a smart, fair trade, organic cotton waffle fabric, which is hand woven by a small community of weavers in Kerala. She began playing around weaving coloured wools into the fabric, and now makes up the embellished fabrics into perfectly finished cushions in her workshop in east London. There is even a bespoke design service so you can choose from a selection of wool colours and designs. www.waffledesign.co.uk.

Stool One, Another Country

My passion for beautifully made furniture endures, long after my days working in the furniture industry. I love this new stool from British company Another Country. It's simple, pared down, honest, and impeccably made. Stool One comes in red or black lacquered chestnut, or my favourite - solid oak - in which the legs are attached to the seat using a peg system, which is visible on the seat surface. www.anothercountry.com.

Natural Collection rugs, Ella Doran

A complete departure for British designer Ella Doran, a collaboration with rug company Woven Ground has resulted in the Natural Collection of rugs. The rugs are produced from natural, organic, sustainable plant fibres such as okra, rati and hyacinth. They are woven in India using a traditional technique which has its origins in basket weaving. The fibres are plaited into a wide, flat strip, then the strips are sewn together by hand to produce the rugs. Most of the collection's rich colours are naturally dyed. The rugs are made to order. www.elladoran.co.uk.

Silver Birch throws, Wide Eye Design

Fellow Winchester School of Art textile graduate, Jennifer Jones of Wide Eye Design, launched her beautiful new Silver Birch collection of throws. Woven in the UK from Shetland Isle wool, Jennifer takes her inspiration from the colours and patterns of one of our most exotic native British trees. www.wide-eye-design.co.uk.

Greys and charcoals

We've just had some lovely detail shots taken of our new felted wool Rhadi rugs, and I thought I'd share them with you here. Lovely warm colours and textures for a cosy feel this cold January.  

Enjoy!

Our new collection, including these rugs, will be available to purchase online within the next few weeks.  Please join our mailing list to be kept informed.

Introducing our new cushions and throws from Nepal

We're thrilled to unveil our new collection of woven interior textiles, developed with the expertise of a group of talented artisans in Nepal.  We worked with SABAH, a non-profit organisation that promotes the wealth of local talent in the region to international designers.

Bakra, Sinja and Thuli cushions

Our new cushions and throws incorporate a sustainable yarn called "Aloo" produced from the giant Himalayan stinging nettle, which grows in abundance in the mountains of Nepal.  Local villagers harvest the plant, soak it, and spin the fibres by hand into a gorgeous linen-like yarn.  Experimenting with this yarn, natural dyes and a traditional weaving technique called "Dhaka", we designed this latest collection.

Bhaktapur cushion and throw

In the Dhaka weaving technique, yarn is inlaid by hand to create pattern in a plain warp.  We inlaid the Aloo yarn, coloured with natural dyes, into a black cotton warp to create the jewel-like patterns in the Bhaktapur and Patan cushions and throws.  The designs are based on traditional Nepalese patterns, passed down though generations of craftswomen.

Patan throw

These new products and our Rhadi rugs will soon be available to purchase from our online shop.  Keep checking the website!  Thank you to Livingstone Studio for allowing us to photograph in their lovely gallery.

Our new Rhadi rugs from Nepal

Radi rug sdisplayed at Livingstone Studio

These gorgeous new felted wool rugs are produced for us in Nepal using wool from the hardy mountain Bharuwal sheep.  The soft light- and mid-grey of the thick yarn are not dyed, but the natural colour of the hand spun wool. The rugs are woven on back strap looms by weavers on the roof of a house in Kathmandu, and then washed in hot water to felt the wool.

Radi weavers

Spools of natural undyed wool

The rugs, which are extremely warm, are often used as blankets against the cold and rain in Nepal, as well as being commonly used as floor coverings.

Available initially in three designs, Stitch by Stitch have reinterpreted traditional woven motifs to produce a modern, rustic look.  Each rug measures 144 x 166cm, although special sizes are also available to order. 

Radi rugs displayed at Livingstone Studio

The rugs are currently available to order through Stitch by Stitch and Livingstone Studio in Hampstead, where they are displayed as part of their Fresh from the Drawing Board exhibition (until 30 November). We will be previewing the rugs at the Selvedge Winter Fair in November. 

The Selvedge Winter Fair moves to Chelsea

We are delighted to have been invited to exhibit at Selvedge Magazine's Winter Fair this November.  And after six successful years at the quaint St Augustine's Church Hall in Highgate, the organisers are moving the fair to the more grand surroundings of Chelsea Old Town Hall.

Selvedge's editor, Polly Leonard, explains, "Although we love the atmosphere of the old church hall, we have been struggling to accommodate visitor numbers recently.

The next fair will therefore take place at Chelsea Old Town Hall, King's Road, London: a stylish and spacious venue with good visitor facilities and excellent transport links. This is as well as being close to the V&A museum, quoted by our subscribers as their number one London attraction."

As always, exhibitors will be of the highest standard.  Leonard personally hand-picks all the exhibitors.  Many of the products on show have a textile bent, but there will also be jewellers and potters.  Stitch by Stitch will be showing NEW cushions from our Nepali collection, woven with Aloo yarn derived from the abundant Himalayan stinging nettle.

The fair is the perfect place to find some very special Christmas presents.

We look forward to meeting you there.  Entrance is £5, redeemable at the Selvedge Shop when you spend over £20.  Why not bring a friend for free - please contact us by filling in our Contact form for a 2 for 1 entrance voucher!

Vodu Nuvo, beauty from scraps

Tobacco vases

Voodoo, or Vodu, is an ancient and sacred tradition observed in Haiti, but its profound teachings so threatened the slave trade, it was declared devil worship. Over two hundred years later, the Haitian people still suffer from this stigma.

Vodu Nuvo is a unique collection of handmade objects for the home, inspired by the true Vodu way of life. Crafted by Haitian artisans, each design is made from found materials such as tobacco leaves, cement bags, used clothing and discarded oil drums, creating beauty from scraps. The collection was developed with BRANDAID Project, an organisation that works with artisan communities in the developing world. BRANDAID Project works to develop, market and launch new artisan brands and newly designed product collections into the global market.

Shirting Quilt

The collection, launched at the end of September, is exclusive to Selfridges, London.

London Design Festival: Wallace Sewell Times Ten

Known for their colourful woven scarves and designs for seating upholstery for Transport for London, London-based textile designers Wallace Sewell have increased the scale of their work for a new venture, launched at Design Junction at the London Design Festival.

Inspired by a recent private commission, Wallace Sewell have multiplied the size of their patterns by 10 to produce a series of architectural wall hangings. The signature intricate stripes and colour block patterning which feature in their scarf collections have been multiplied by ten to create powerful large-scale compositions. The colour depth and intensity of the woven pieces surpasses anything that can be achieved in paint or print.

Canonteign Landscape

London Design Festival: Chilean craftsmanship meets new technology

Las Doce is a new range of wooden tableware from young Chilean design company The Andes House, exhibited at Design Junction during the London Design Festival.  Each bowl, plate and cup is carved from a single piece of wood by Mapuche artisans in Chile, using traditional carving techniques. The exterior is carved by hand, and the centre is cut out by a CNC industrial cutting machine.

The product range showcases the special characteristics of two distinctly different woodworking processes.

The Andes House, and their product design brand MadeinMIMBRE have a track record in creating innovative products utilising the traditional craft skills of Chilean artisans.  This summer, I wrote about them in my guest blog post for Decorex.

The London Design Festival runs until 23 September.

London Design Festival: cutting edge design revives tradition

In the second of my highlights from this week's London Design Festival, I look at two projects in which contemporary product designers have refreshed the output of two long-established manufacturers.

In the gorgeous Madejski Garden at the V&A Museum, UK furniture company Established & Sons have installed ten extraordinary one-off benches, each designed by an internationally acclaimed designer paired with a unique material supplier. My favourite is Bench of Plates by design and architecture studio AL_A, who collaborated with ceramic producer Ceramica Cumella from Spain. Ceramica Cumella was founded in 1880 in Barcelona, and originally produced traditional pottery for everyday use. Bench of Plates showcases a spectrum of glaze colours, as a reference to domestic dinner ware. The individually handmade ceramic leaves remind one of plates, tiles or shingles. These interlocking plates, as well as being visually arresting, allow the bench to be arranged in a variety of shapes. Bench Years is at the V&A Museum until Sunday, open daily 10-5.45pm.

Bench of Plates by AL_A and Ceramica Cumella

70 year old Japanese furniture manufacturer and woodworking specialist Karimoku turned to creative director Teruhiro Yanagihara to introduce a wealth of new design talent to reinvigorate its collection. In 2009, a new brand, Karimoku New Standard, was created with the intention of combining traditional Japanese woodworking techniques with progressive technologies such as new surface and colour treatments.

Colour Stool designed by Scholten & Baijings

The company is committed to preserving and revitalising Japanese forests and local industry. It's products are predominantly made of solid Japanese hardwoods such as maple, chestnut and oak - timbers that previously ended up as wood chips for paper pulp. A selection of their tables, chairs, platters and coatstands are on display in Twentytwentyone's Upper Street showroom, including some prototypes for 2013.

Colour Platter designed by Scholten & Baijings

London Design Festival: Textiles for furniture.

London is once again in a state of excitement as it hosts another series of international events scattered around the capital, under the umbrella of the London Design Festival.

There's so much to see, from new furniture launches, site specific design installations, exhibitions and trade fairs, that I've resigned myself to picking a few choice shows to see, and writing about my personal highlights here over the next few days.

In the spirit of Stitch by Stitch, I love to see contemporary designers coming at old ideas afresh.  I'm also pretty obsessed with textiles and furniture - especially any combination of the two - so my first highlight is a chair at Danish textile company Kvadrat's impressive London showroom.

Raw Edges were one of a number of designers selected to reinterpret one of Kvadrat's iconic woollen fabrics. Hallingdal 65 was first designed in 1965 by Nanna Ditzel, and remains one of Kvadrat's best-selling products due to it's superior durability and extensive colour palette.  Raw Edges deconstructed the fabric by unravelling and releasing threads from within the weave, creating a hollow sleeve inside its surface. Two layers in different colours were then placed on top of each other and re-stitched together using a transparent plastic strip. A colourful rim then appeared from the other layer, reminiscent of the selvedge on raw fabrics.

Just around the corner, furniture company Established & Sons have opened the doors of their HQ with an exhibition of their furniture collections, including new pieces launched at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan earlier this year.  Two upholstered seating ranges particularly caught my textile designer's eye.  Quilt is an inviting, padded, super-sized armchair, designed by Rowan and Erwan Bouroullec.  It's upholstered in what could be described as a quilt on steroids, made from a high-tech stretch fabric with padded inserts, fitted over a fibreglass frame.  The most recent version, called Quilt, The Thing, is delightfully mad, inspired by its comic book namesake.

Cape, designed by Konstantin Grcic, takes its inspiration from the way loose fabric covers are informally draped over furniture out of season in hotels and country estates.  Cape's loose covers can easily be changed to suit the season or a new decorating scheme.

The London Design Festival runs until 23 September.  Kvadrat, Celebrating Hallingdal 65, is open during the festival from 10-7pm until Fri, Sat-Sun by appointment only.  Established & Sons showroom is open during the festival Weds and Thurs 10-6pm, Fri-Sun 9.30-5.30pm.    

Nettle yarn and natural dyes - our new cushions from Nepal

Well, summer's nearly over, and it's back to work with renewed energy, and new products nearly ready to launch!

I've taken a little break from our blog over the summer, although I did find time to write a guest blog post for Decorex, the Interior Design Show for Professionals which runs from 23-26 September in London. It was a great opportunity to write about some very interesting, creative people working in a similar way to us at Stitch by Stitch. All produce beautiful interiors products whilst supporting local artisans and socially responsible producers around the world. Read my blog post here.

I'll be writing another guest post for Decorex soon on my highlights at the show. Watch this space!

But back to our new collection. We'll soon be launching the first products - a range of cushions woven in Nepal which incorporate Aloo fibre, a linen-like yarn produced from the giant Himalayan stinging nettle which grows abundantly in the region. We've used all natural dyes, including indigo.

And I just love the little bamboo buttons on the opening, sourced locally.

 The cushions will soon be for sale online.  Please contact us to be the first to know when they are available.

Livingstone Studio

Tucked away in a peaceful and historic enclave of Hampstead in north London, is a hidden gem of a gallery. Housed in a suitably unusual early eighteenth century converted coach house, Livingstone Studio is a textile design studio and gallery run by designer Inge Cordsen.

This very special gallery has regular changing exhibitions of exceptional textiles in the form of garments, accessories and interior textiles with an emphasis on fine contemporary craftsmanship, including currently some pieces by Stitch by Stitch. There are also some carefully chosen pieces of handcrafted furniture and pottery.

Regular exhibitors include the renowned Raag Studios of Ahmedabad, India, German clothing designer Aenne Cordsen, London-based tailor Ian Batten, Daniela Gregis from Italy and Jurgen Lehl whose work has a complementary Japanese sensibility. The studio also supports a new generation of designers, such as Oma Jang from South Korea and Tomoko Yamanaka.

The latest exhibition, Still Remains: remnants from the past recreated, and the Summer Sale opens on Saturday 30 June.

Livingstone Studio, 36 New End Square, London NW3 1LS, open Tues-Sat 11-6pm. For full details of exhibitions and events, see livingstonestudio.co.uk.

Ela Bhatt - founder of the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA)

Photo credit: Haim Zach, The Elders

In this, the first in a series of short profiles of the extraordinary women of SEWA, we profile it's founder, Ela Bhatt.

Ela Bhatt was born in 1933 in Ahmedabad, India, and grew up in the city of Surat. Her father was a successful lawyer, and her mother was active in the women's movement. She gained her law degree in 1954 from the Sir L.A. Shah Law College in Ahmedabad, and in 1955, joined the legal department of the Textile Labour Association (TLA) in Ahmedabad.

After marriage, and working for some years for the government of Gujarat, she was asked by the TLA to head its women's wing in 1968. During this time, she became acutely aware of the plight of poor self-employed women in India and Asia, and specifically, the fact that there were no state laws protecting self-employed women, only industrial workers. Such women included weavers, embroiderers, stitchers, cigarette rollers, waste-paper pickers and construction workers. Rents for stalls and tools were high, and they were open to exploitation and harassment by officials, employers and money lenders. In Ahmedabad, 97 per cent of these women lived in slums, and most were illiterate and in debt. Ela felt compelled to do something to address the situation, and began organising self-employed women into a union with the support of the TLA. From this, the Self-Employed Women's Association was founded in 1972, with Arvind Buch of the TLA as president, and Ela as general-secretary.

Early on, Ela won higher wages for women porters, and a later landmark victory allowed women to sell fruit and vegetables on the street free from police harassment. In three years SEWA had 7,000 members and was registered as a trade union with the government. In 1974 SEWA established it's own bank, which now has around 350,000 depositors. The women's wages are paid directly into their own accounts, and they can apply for loans, on which the bank has a very healthy 97 per cent repayment rate. Over 100,000 women are now enrolled in SEWAs health and life insurance plans, offering a safety net to those who previously had none. SEWA has enabled it's members to acquire negotiating power with their employers. They have set up cooperatives of various trade groups who share expertise and skills, develop new tools, designs and techniques, and can organise bulk buying and pool marketing resources.

However, Ela's work doesn't stop here. She has taken the struggle for justice and recognition for self-employed women into the international arena. SEWA is now affiliated to the International Union of Food and Tobacco Workers and to the International Federation of Plantation, Agricultural and Allied Workers.

Ela Bhatt was nominated by the President of India to be a member of the Indian parliament (Rajya sabha) from 1986 to 1989. She was a member of the Planning Commission of India (1989-91) and has been chairperson and a founder member of Women's World Banking since 1980. In 2011, Harvard University awarded her the Radcliffe Institute Medal for her life and work, and she was appointed to the Board of the Reserve Bank of India. She was also selected for the prestigious Indira Gandhi Prize in 2011, and is a member of "The Elders", a group of powerful and influential peace activists and human rights campaigners, founded in 2007 by Nelson Mandela.

Sources:

Right Livelihood Award Foundation Archive www.rightlivelihood.org

Selvedge Magazine's Meet the Maker series presents Stitch by Stitch

Stitch by Stitch co-hosted a great evening event at Selvedge's north London shop last night.

Guests enjoyed a glass of wine and a chat in the relaxed atmosphere at Polly Leonard's interesting shop. Stitch by Stitch's cushions, throws, table linen and bags were amongst the eclectic selection of fabulous textile goods on display.

Our designer, Graham Hollick then gave a talk about his visits to Gujarat, and his project with local embroiderers that led to our first collection of interior textiles. Graham always has some interesting and fun anecdotes to share, and he spoke of some of the pitfalls, as well as the rewards, of working in such a poor and remote region. These included initial issues with rusty needles and keeping the white cotton clean (which we're pleased to say were resolved!). He also had to get used to the women leaving their embroidery, sometimes tantalisingly near completion, to milk their cows! He also spoke of how difficult he found it to sit on the floor for hours, and how he would often be the only person sitting on a chair.

In a Q&A session, Graham compared two Kukuben cushions to illustrate that every item is unique, as each embroiderer slightly varies the stitches on each item. Some of the women had shown Graham antique embroidered items in their possession, explaining that some of the stitches were 'extinct' - no-one knew how to do them any more. We hope that our collection helps to keep some of the stitches alive, by reworking them in a contemporary way.

We then showed a film Graham made of the project which we are delighted to share with you here. The opening shots are of the colourful traditional textiles of the region, and it moves onto the women making our products. Look out for the shots of the women transferring the paper designs onto the fabric by rubbing paraffin wax over the paper - tiny pinholes in the paper allow the design to be traced through onto the fabric. This is my favourite bit, and I love the happy chatter in the background as the women work.

Meet The Maker evening at Selvedge

We are delighted to be co-hosting an exclusive evening event at Selvedge Magazine's gorgeous shop in Highgate, north London, on Tuesday 12 June.

In the first in a series of events entitled Meet the Maker, Selvedge's editor, Polly Leonard will introduce our designer Graham Hollick. Graham will talk about the journey, both literally and metaphorically, that led to the founding of Stitch by Stitch and our first collection of embroidered textiles from Gujarat.

Please join us for drinks and a chance to shop from the collection from 6.30-8.30pm on 12 June at Selvedge, 162 Archway Rd, London N6 5BB. RSVP to info@stitchbystitch.eu.