By Marijke Bongers

Because making beautiful handmade clothes is a huge amount of work it is a wise idea to work on it with others. I think it is also good that women in small creative businesses support each other and cooperate.

One of the reasons is that it can be really nice to do what you love most. And leave other work to one who loves to do that. Another is that you can share your joined project all on social media and attract more attention to it. The same is with joining forces on photoshoots, fairs or shows not only because it can save money but also that you can achieve more.

We are working now to make new work for the fair fashion festival this summer. Caitlin is our expert on spinning, she is always on the search for the best local fibers. She loves to work with Alpaca sometimes combined with other delicate fibers like silk or yak. Combined with some hand- and plant dyed yarns the package of yarn goes to Mieke de Bruijn the expert on weaving and owner of her own studio. Mieke de Bruijn started on making a pile of experiments on weaving with our yarn. She lives more than an hour drive away so not around the corner. We cannot wait till we can go to her and decide on what to use for a Kimonojacket. Mieke is also the maker of this gorgous website, and Nanda, another member of our Conscious Women Society eddited and aproved our about page, and will have a look at all our tekst. She loves language.

Next to weaving Caitlin and I are working on other decorative techniques that can be combined with the woven fabric. We love Kantha stitching and Japanese textiles like Boro's. So hand stitching embroidery is added to a design. We could add some personal motifs or text for a bespoke piece of work.

I used to study Haute Couture sewing, and now we are working with handwoven delicate and soft fabric it was fun to research how a Chanel jacket was made. The silk lining is inserted with a kind of quilting like stitch, joining two fabrics together. Making sure there was enough room for movement but also made so that the silk is a support for the woven fabric. This makes the famous jacket so lovely and comfortable. We would like to make kimono style jackets in this way. And we would like to add decoration in a very personal way. You could call it a signature coat. I imagine a lady who buy or make one for herself could wear it on many occasions for many years. In the future we will share video's on the making on our Patreon page Voor onze Nederlandse lezers: We begrijpen dat niet iedereen blij is met steeds meer Engels op websites. Maar omdat onze klantenkring steeds meer internationaal wordt kiezen we toch voor Engelstalig. Voor vragen kunt u natuurlijk altijd in de studio of per email bij ons terecht.

By Marijke Bongers

On Thursday 28th of March I will teach a workshop eco print.
Caitlin and I joined a wonderful 5 day workshop with India Flint in Scotland in 2015 and I went again to a long workshop on eco printing of India in 2017 when she visited the Netherlands.

Eco printing the way India teaches us is great fun. Taking care of using only plants from your own garden or windfall, you'll learn how much treasures there are lying around, waiting for you to use. India takes great care in using and reusing textiles and making pieces of art of them. If you visit our studio I would recommend you to take the time and enjoy sitting at our table and read her books. They are my favorite textile books! You can find more info about the eco print workshop at the event page. We will work on paper and textiles. Also you can work on eco printing on the ongoing lessons every Wednesday- and/or Thursday evening. Have a look at events for more information about these lessons.

Picture 2: Caitlin's work in Scotland 2015 Picture 3: Marijke's work in Schotland 2015 And a link to the blog of India Flint: Website India Flint Voor onze Nederlandse lezers: We begrijpen dat niet iedereen blij is met steeds meer Engels op websites. Maar omdat onze klantenkring steeds meer internationaal wordt kiezen we toch voor Engelstalig. Voor vragen kunt u natuurlijk altijd in de studio of per email bij ons terecht.