FAQs

Your Cart

Close
Paper Plane Your order qualifies for free standard delivery
Subtotal £0.00
Delivery £0.00
Order Total £0
Checkout Securely

From a story William Morris read to his daughters to an iconic design; Brother Rabbit

22nd May 2017

Welcome to our new blog series which revolves around all our current designs before we launch our new one! Below is a sneak peak of the new design as well as an insight into how colours are chosen for a new design of ours. Throughout the process, we work closely with the printers and receive many strike offs to make sure it’s perfect. Our new design is excitingly close to being perfected so stay tuned!

Our Brother Rabbit design was first produced in May 1882. It was one of nineteen designs registered at the Patent Office between 1881-1882 by Morris- seventeen of these were designed for the indigo- discharge method of printing. This method stands in stark contrast to the printing we see today on machines; this took three days to complete. The cloth was submerged in an indigo vat in order to dye it all over to a uniform blue colour. Then it was bleached with a bleaching reagent to reduce the colour to the desired shade of blue for the base colour. Mordants are then applied to the bleached parts and then the cloth immersed in a madder vat to give it the proper tint. The excess colour was then cleaned off and to ensure the colours on the fabric won’t run once produced, they were set at boiling point by passing the fabric through soap. Laid outside with the printed side face up, the white of the design was purified to finish the job- a laborious job to create a work of art; worth it though to see the beautiful and intricate designs Morris produced.

The Uncle Remus Stories were written by J.C. Harris and Morris read them to his children Jenny and May at their home Kelmscott Manor. The birds in the design were drawn by Morris’ close friend Philip Webb.

Nowadays, our products are both printed and manufactured in the UK, are licensed designs by William Morris, and are printed both size and colour-wise to our own specifications to best suit our products.

Below are a few of our Brother Rabbit design items- our tote bags fitted in perfectly in Venice, but our full range is viewable here- it would look great on your table and throughout your kitchen in accessories this summer time!

Related Articles

Post Title

British Fairs in Japan

As you may know we are very proud to be a British business, we print and manufacture all our products in the UK. It is...

Post Title

St George’s Day

St George's Day has been celebrated for thousands of years, since 1222 on the 23rd April. The hymn Jerusalem is sung in Churches across the...

Post Title

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

January 26th - 27th This was the weekend of the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch and I was hoping that the thrushes that usually come to...

Autumn tables could potentially be one of our favourites! 🤎 Featuring our William Morris Compton design 🍂🧡
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorris #williammorrisfabric #fabric #compton #autumnal #autumntable #autumntablescape
Weekend evenings warming cookies in the oven 🍪👩‍🍳 Using our Golden Lily oven gloves of course 🤎
•
•
•
#autumn #autumnevenings #williammorris #cookies #goldenlily #preraphaelite
We adore these stunning Morris designs all together, don’t you? 🤎
•
•
•
#williammorris #morris #morrisdesign #fatquarters #quiltingfabric #preraphaelite #craftfabric #craftfabrics #fabric
Willow Bough Blue is back in stock! ✨ Year-round this design is an incredibly popular one, isn’t it incredible that it was designed by William Morris in 1887 and remains so timeless all these years later! 🩶
•
•
•
#williammorris #morris #willowbough #design #floraldesign #williammorrisdesign #preraphaelites #victoriandesign
🪡 Restocked!🧵 Our William Morris crafts, quilting and Archive Products Market has had a re stock! 🤎 Be quick though, there’s only one of most items! 🏃🏽‍♀️
•
•
•
#williammorris #morris #morrisfabric #sale #preraphaelite #florals #independantbusiness
Cosy season is here! 🍂 we’re lighting all the candles and getting the autumnal decor out 🍁 With 100 days to go (sorry to mention but we’d do a year countdown if it were up to us!) there’s some fabulous gifts in our archive and craft sale- that we’ve been secretly restocking every day ☺️ Have you bought any prezzies yet? 🎁 also wait for our future post on how to make these pumpkin napkins! 🎃
•
•
•
#williammorris #preraphaelite #cosytablescape #autumnaltablescape #compton #morrisfloral #florals #autumnflorals
We’ll miss the beautiful summer florals, but also can’t wait for some autumnal flowers and foliage! 🌿
Ft beautiful Strawberry Thief blue 🍓
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #preraphaelite #victorianart #strawberrythief #florals #summerflorals #autumnflowers
Do you have a fave out of these beautiful William Morris florals? 🌿 We could never pick just one 🪻 
Designs top row; Willow Bough Green & Golden Lily 
Designs bottom row; Pimpernel Cream, Pimpernel Green & Compton ✨
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisfabrics #fabric #fabrics #fatquarter #fatquarterbundle #fatquarterfriday #preraphaelite #yorkshirebusiness
Inspired by nature and designed by William Morris, aren’t they all just such beautifully timeless designs 🫶🏻
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabric #fabric #floralfabric #floralfabrics #florals #englishfloral #independantbusiness #ukbusiness
Back in stock alert! 🫧 A firm favourite for many, we absolutely love William Morris Brother Rabbit design, don’t you? 🫶🏻 If you’d like a sample, just send us a message 💌
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #brotherrabbit #fabric #quiltingfabric #quilting #ukquiltingfabric #floralfabric #curtainfabric #upholsteryfabric
Calling all quilters! 🫧 Our 100% cotton fat quarters are now available individually on our website! In all our licensed William Morris designs, they are incredible for quilts 🪡 If you order four, you get one free, so please message us to choose the design of your free fat quarter 🫶🏻
•
•
•
#williammorris #williammorrisfabric #williammorrisdesign #williammorrisfabrics #fabric #floraldesign #fatquartershop #fatquarters #fatquarter #fatquarterbundle #quilting #quiltingfabric