Vintage inspired fabric printing

My love of vintage fabrics has followed me since I first unearthed a pair of 1950s barkcloth curtains at a jumble sale and stitched them up into dress, and then later discovered sweet fifties and sixties cotton print frocks peeking out of the rails of my local ramshackle charity shop. It was pure glee at first sight.

My other passion has been printmaking which I have been lucky enough to explore under the expert tuition of the talented tutors at the City Lit. Last year I combined these to launch vintage inspired fabric printing workshops at my Sprout exhibition.

My vintage inspired fabric printing workshops aim to give people the opportunity to explore and handle vintage fabrics and to delve into my library of mid-century textile designers. Taking inspiration from these, participants can then design their own images for hand printing.

Sneak peek at some of my books

Participants will create lino blocks for printing from their designs and using non-toxic textile inks, create a repeat pattern using their blocks or in combination with readymade printing blocks. At the end of the workshop, everyone will have created their own handprinted vintage inspired fabric suitable for making up into a cushion, bag, lampshade or even a pinny.

If you've been inspired by the recent exhibitions of Lucienne Day's work at the Pallant House Gallery, the Horrockses dresses at the Fashion & Textile Museum and the sixtieth anniversary of the Festival of Britain, vintage inspired fabric printing might be just the thing for you this summer!

Lucienne and Robin Day at Pallant House Gallery

Horrockses display at FTM

Horrockses Display at FTM

No previous experience is needed, and in small groups you will have one-to-one tuition to guide you through each stage. Have a look at my past workshops to see what can be created by people using lino printing for the first time!

The next workshops are in July at CraftyPint North and the We Make London pop-up boutique. At longer workshops, participants can create their own designs and print a large piece of fabric. At the shorter sessions, ready made blocks are available to create your own fifties inspired fabric. I'm really looking forward to seeing what people create at them.

Lucienne Day at Pallant House Gallery

More workshops are planned for my Summer Shows with the Seaside Sisters at Vintage Hemingway, Craft Central and LV21 in late July and August. If you would like to find out about my workshops, please do get in touch by email, leave a comment, or check the events section of this blog.

Museum of '51 at the Southbank

The fabric of my life

It's about time this blog started living up to its name! I have collected fabric since I was in my teens, always making a beeline for the curtains piled high at jumble sales in search of barkcloth beauties to turn into skirts, dresses and shirts. As teenagers we even had a stall in our local Saturday market called 'Swallows and Amazons" selling these homemade creations along with vintage clothes and hand printed dresses (it never rained in those days!)

In more recent years I have been developing other uses for these fabrics including cushions, bags, brooches, collages, purses and stuffed animals. No fragment goes unused as I am only too aware that it's amazing that this fabric has survived 50 years or so. I love the distinctive 50s atomic designs as well as the more pop-style flowers and swirls and, through work by people like Jane Foster I have become a fan of Scandinavian designers such as Stig Lindberg.

I'm not sure why I love these fabrics so much. But they make my heart sing! So each week I plan to have a little display of my fabrics. This will also help me organise my fabrics a bit more and build up a set of samples so I don't get carried away snipping out all those cats and dogs! If any of you have these fabrics as well it would be lovely to hear from you, especially what you've used it for (or plan!) or if you know who the designer was, or if I get my facts wrong! As this week is feeling springy, I've started with some of the green and flowery fabrics I'm working with for the Handm@de Fair. First up is the beautifully named "All in a row" by Genia Sapper for Moygashel.

This next one I love. It is labeled 'Home Fashion' and comes in a heavy weight silky linen. The final one has no selvedges, so the designer is unknown to me. At the top of this page is a heavy cotton fabric I use a lot, also unnamed.

The snowy day

The snowy day by Ezra Jack Keats has always been one of my favorite books. The little bit of snow we had recently made me think of it again so I decided to buy a few copies to send to nieces and cousins so they could enjoy it too.

I remember really liking the thoughtful little boy and his attempt to keep a snowball...

and I still love the illustrations now, I haven't seen a better one of snow.

And I liked his use of wallpaper cut-ups in the pictures. The book was also very significant for its inclusion of an African-Amercan family at the centre of the story. Keat's style changes in other books, but there are plenty of wallpaper cut-ups in some of his other books from the sixties, Whistle for Willie and Peter's chair.

I also treated myself to Keats neighbourhood. It includes 10 of his stories and commentaries from other writers. Lots of illustrations, and stories to read with visitors.