Cabbages
& Roses interior fabrics are all printed a stones throw away from our store, at a 40 year old factory in West London; a rustic well-kept secret among London fabric designers.
The printing of our fabrics are always overseen by a member
of the C&R team. This week Sophie Marsh and Sophie Bowden (both of whom are passionate about print and colour), were at the
factory printing the Constance fabric.
Constance is printed using a flat bed printer. Screens of different colours and shades stamp the fabric, starting with the darker shades. Constance Multi is made using 10 different screens of colour and is our most intricate fabric.
To start the day off, a one metre test run is done. The colourist tweaks the ink within the flat
bed until the colour perfectly matches the sample. The test run is usually done a couple of times
until Sophie is happy with the colour. Once the colour is perfect, the printing
can start.
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| Constance Multi |
The next step is the process of Sanforization. The purpose of this process is to shrink
fabrics and create a tighter weave, so that the fabrics don’t shrink further
during washing and the colours don’t run. A qualified quality checker meticulously
goes through the entire length of fabric, checking for any imperfections or
loose threads.
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| Constance Multi |
The
designer of the Constance Fabric, Creative Director Christina, endearingly describes
the Constance fabric as “one of our most
extravagant fabrics”.
“Constance continues to be one of our best selling fabrics in all three colour ways so much so, that it is likely that we will introduce more colours one day. The colourful and light hearted design is appropriate for any scheme, from drawing room to kitchen to bedroom and we have several coordinating fabrics so the print does not overwhelm."
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| Sophie checking the Constance Blue fabric |
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| Constance Blue |
Christina recommends pairing the Constance fabric with “the gentle lilac or natural plain washed linen, which can act as a
calming influence as do the variety of stripes in various colours and widths
available from our collection”
From factory floor to the end product; curtains made up in Constance Blue -
Christabel x
We love to hear your thoughts, so please do leave us a comment below (about this blog post, or anything you would like to hear from us in future).
2 comments
Beautiful, loved seeing part of the process!
Loved hearing about the process and seeing the pics. Really shows how much care goes into the product. Thanks for the behind the scenes glimpse!
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