How do we make our cushion covers?

Here I will show you the secrets of our production process which can take about 6 months from start to finish.

Stage 1 - defining the concept

At this stage we come up with lots of visual ideas which might work as a concept. Influences can come from many sources, such as photographs, drawings, books and magazines.

Pattern designs naturally fall into different categories in the market, and we tend to favour botanical illustration. We will do some sketches by hand to work out all the details.

Stage 2 - creating a themed collection

We focus on creating 10 designs which are independently strong but also could work as a group. Perhaps they have a similar scale, colour palette, or arrangement of motifs. The motifs are either drawn by hand or with computer software such as Adobe Illustrator.

Not all of the designs will make it to final approval stage because we edit out the weaker ones as we go along. Once we have our favourite designs ready, we produce about 6 colourways for each. This enables us to balance out the colours and see what works best. Perhaps only 2 colour options will go to production in the end.

Stage 3 – production sampling

We send our digital files to our factory for production sampling. A fabric swatch panel is produced so we can check the colours are right. Normally the colours are fairly close to what we see on screen. We usually use cotton drill, but if we need to change, there are samples of each material to be checked.

We also obtain samples of any special finishes that are required such as piping, fringes, zips and labels.

Once we are happy with everything, we go ahead with the print run.

Stage 4 – production fabrication

The cushion covers are digitally printed then sew by hand with close attention paid to every detail. Once we receive the finished products, we quality check them for customers.