We love seeing what our customers make and we were delighted when Shirley, from Handprinted, paid us a visit to buy fabrics and patterns for a couple sewing projects that she had in mind.

Her plan was to customise her makes by printing sections of fabric with ready made Thermomax screens. These screens are great, and an easy way to make your garments truly unique to you.

For her first project, Shirley chose The Top #64 by Merchant and Mills in Robert Kaufman's Yarn Dyed Essex Linen in Steel.

Before doing any sewing, she printed the pre-cut lower panel pieces with the Grid design as shown above.

Once the ink was dry Shirley then made sewed up her top as you would any other make. We're sure you'll agree that the end results look really effective, this process is such a good way to make your handmade garments even more special.

Shirley's second make, was the top from The Raglan Dress & Top by The Avid Seamstress. For this project Shirley used our 8oz Indigo Denim, again by Robert Kaufman.

As before, Shirley cut out the pieces as you would with any sewing project, she then hand printed sections of the front and back body pieces, this time with the Inkspot Ready-Made Thermofax.

This finished Raglan Top looks fantasic, we love the addition of the print, and it's great to see this top made to too!

If these makes have inspired you to have a go, why not take a look at Handprinted's Blog for a detailed tutorial, and if you're local to Chichester why not take a moment check out their workshops too.

Photo credits: Handprinted

We're always on the look out for contemporary fabric labels to add to our select range of designers and as soon as we saw the Atelier Brunette Collection we new it would fit perfectly with the other brands that we stock.  

Their modern hand-writing and contemporary aesthetic fit our remit perfectly and, at the same time, they add a new dimension to our fabric range.

The fabric bases too, are new to us. Firstly there's the 100% Rayon Viscose used for the two colourways of the iregular geo print called Halo, as shown above, which we've chosen to stock in both Dusk and Brown. It has a soft but substantial feel to it, with a weight of 130g/m2, making it ideal for dresses, tops, shirts etc.

Styles that would work particularly well from Merchant and Mills are the Camber, both as a top and the dress, Factory Dress, & Trapeze Dress. From Grainline Studio, the new Farrow Dress would look sensational, and for a more understated look so would The Scout Tee.

The other four designs that we selected are printed on to a 100% Cotton Cambric. Pictured above, choose from, clockwise from top left, Lili, a modern take on the ditsy floral with its clusters of seedheads; Twist, a geo diamond design, Chalk in Charcoal, and finally Bye Bye Birdie in Navy, with the origami-style birds.

A lighter-weight than the Viscose, this fabric has a weight of 85g/m2. It's closely woven and, if it's not a fabric that you're familiar with, then it's similar to a voile. The softness of this fabric really is something else, and it has a beautiful drape to it too.

These fabrics are ideal for tops, tunics and dresses including both Keilo Wrap Dress and Leini Dress by Named Clothing to name a couple.

We are so excited to have just added the Finnish company Named Clothing to our range of indie sewing pattern labels. We've been long-time admirers of their fabulous designs and can't wait to get started on a sewing project using one of their patterns.  

Named Clothing are a DIY fashion label that produce patterns for fashionable clothing. Their garments are a combination of Scandinavian clean-lined simplicity and interesting design details.

Founded by sisters, Saara and Laura Huhta, their company was formed from their dream to turn their passion for sewing into a career.

The aim of the collections is to bring a new perspective to making your own clothes, and to support ethical and ecological consuming in contrast to a clothing industry focused on fast fashion.

Named release two main collections a year, and within that the patterns have five levels of difficulty, which allows anyone from a beginner to a more experienced sewer to find patterns suited to their skill level. We've selected a capsule range across their various collections, taking care to make sure that these patterns are styles that we feel our customers would aspire to make, but also that they sit back with the rest of the patterns that we already stock.

We love the way that the patterns have been packaged, they have a very modern look, which reflects the sewing patterns within. Each pattern comes with a comprehensive instructions booklet that includes detailed and illustrated sewing instructions, cutting layout, material consumption chart and finished measurements for all sizes. The patterns and instructions are designed and printed in Helsinki, Finland.

We'll be adding more patterns in the coming months, including those from their eagerly awaited SS2017 Collection.

Do let us know if there's a Named style that you think we should stock.

We're delighted to have added our first fabrics from Merchant and Mills to our carefully curated collection. We've selected four fabrics from their exclusive Rajasthan Collection which combine traditional hand printed techniques with contemporary designs.

These unique hand block designs are hand printed in Jaipur on 100% summer weight cotton. By virtue of the fact that they are hand made, no two lengths of these fabrics will be exactly the same, making then truly artisan.

First we've Indigo Running Spot with it's irregular rows of cream dots on a dark navy base. This design really does bring hand block printing right up to date and would look fabulous made up as The Dress Shirt or even as a simple tee shape such as The Camber or Scout Tee.

Then there's Daisy Indigo which is made up of lots of tiny dots, this design brings together florals and geometric shapes for a very modern take on the traditional hand block printed designs. This smaller scale design would work well in the tee shapes that we've mentioned above, as well as for dresses, plus we can see this fabric made up in the Lakeside Pajamas by Grainline Studio.

Finally we've two colourways of what is probably the most contemporary of the designs, Delauney. We love how the different stripe widths work and contrast within the square design, giving it a really modern look.

Pictured below is the Indigo colourway, with its uneven print marks which create a mottled effect within the stripes, giving added interest to this design. This fabric has a slightly crisper feel to it, and again would work well for all dressmaking projects, including the Willow Tank.

And below, we've the Charcoal colourway of the Delauney print. The dilemma being which colourway to choose!

We hope that you like these natural hand block printed fabrics as much as we do! We're really looking forward to getting started with some sewing projects using these fabrics.... and don't forget to send in photos of your makes, we love to see what you've been sewing.

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I loved this lengthened version of The Day Dress made by Lisa, the designer and owner of The Avid Seamstress, the moment I first saw it over on Instagram.

It's such an easy adaption, Lisa has simply increased the length of the skirt by 12cm to create a very stylish and contemporary silhouette, and somehow it makes this dress look completely different!

To achieve a similar look why not use one of the Sevenberry fabrics.... Broken Lines cut on the "cross-grain' would work well as would Small Spots.

For a special occasion, or the party season, a lengthened Day Dress in one of the Robert Kaufman Metallic Essex Linens would look stunning. Any one of them would look lovely but this season I'm particularly drawn to the new Storm and Black colourways