Karen Charlton Textile Blog

Creating yarn and fabric from scraps. What to do with leftovers?  There is great satisfaction in completing a project that has been a long time in the making. After the frenetic time leading up to a completion deadline and before the start of a new project there is a period which is a thoughtful, reflective and cathartic process, the ‘big tidy up’.   The tidying leads to a dilemma – what to do with the left-over fibres, yarn and fabrics that are too small or short to be of any real individual use?   I’m talking here of the thrums (warp wastage after weaving) and the ort (left over short pieces of thread from sewing) and fabric scraps. When collected they make for a substantial collection of materials. Is there some way of saving them from the bin and repurposing them for use in another project? At a recent weekend in Bradford (the home of textiles) I attended a session with tutor and textile artist Hannah Lamb and discovered a method of using thrums, orts and scraps...

Althea McNish (1924- 2020)  drew on her African-Caribbean heritage to inform her designs. The exhibition is a collection of dazzling energetic colour.   Whilst visiting her tutor Edward Bawden she saw a wheat field for the first time. I t reminded her of the sugar cane plantations that grew on the island of Trinidad and Tobago. She used the wheat motif in Golden Harvest - her first design for commercial design company Hull Traders.  The lines are dynamic and capture the movement of    the wheat stalks ripening in the hot bright summer sun . "Everything I did, I saw it through a tropical eye." Althea McNish, 2015 An exhibition that is uplifting and energising.   A stunning dress in beautiful fabric. This dress could be worn today (2023) and not be out of place. It is vibrant. with a modern feel. The design has an energetic colour palette printed onto cotton. A Visit to Selfridges Manchester Perusing dresses in Selfridges I came upon a striking dress. This wa...