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Upcycling Furniture with our William Morris fabric

27th January 2022

Bringing a piece of furniture back to life is always so special and rewarding. When buying a new home, this conservatory set was left for us which was fantastic. We loved the rattan of it and decided to give it an upcycle to breathe new life into the set using our William Morris fabric. We chose our licensed William Morris Willow Bough in green to recover it, it’s perfect in every room, but in the conservatory, against the garden, it looks absolutely wonderful!

To recover the set, we used our heavyweight fabric. We have lots of designs within our licensed William Morris collection printed on heavyweight cotton fabric. If you’d like a sample, we’re happy to send free samples within the UK.

Our William Morris fabric Willow Bough Green

After a quick paint of the room, we set to work on the cushions! Now, there were many more than we initially thought – you get to the end of one and then realise there’s 14 to go! The main thing is to have a good audiobook or telly programme on whilst you work, recovering when you’re not a professional isn’t the easiest, but its very rewarding at the end once it’s all done.

Upcycling furniture with our William Morris fabric

To start, let’s cut the pattern. We used the existing cushions for our pattern, unpicking them with a seam ripper to measure out against the new fabric. You could also use the measurements, but as all of our cushions are different sizes and shapes, this seemed the easiest method for us. It meant that there was less chance of us going wrong by using it as a pattern, we wanted them to be the exact same size so that we could reuse the cushion pads and make sure the base cushions fit.

Upcycling chair with our William Morris fabric the before

We even reused the piping, we’ve never done this before so it seemed the easiest method. We knew by reusing it that when we put it round the cushion edge that it would be the right size because we knew it would meet in the middle at the back. The cushions are feather so they wouldn’t hold a shape when measuring so it was much easier to do it this way to recover the cord to keep the shape. It meant we were reusing most parts of the original sofa too, from the cushion pads to the zips!

With each cushion having different sizes, we made sure to do one at a time so we could carefully cut, iron and press the pattern, cut the fabric and then the binding so we didn’t get confused!

Upcycling furniture with our William Morris fabric the after

We pattern matched across the top cushions, the base cushions and the sides of the cushion. We were lucky that the pattern match for Willow Bough Green is only a small pattern match at 29cm so we didn’t waste much fabric. The fabric left over from this, we used for the binding, to make sure we utilised all the fabric and didn’t create lots of waste from the project.

We even reused the zips as they were a lovely quality, it made sure that the cushions were all the right size and the zips fit – it just seemed the easiest way for us to do it as we’re not professionals so were a little unsure what we were doing! Taking them apart bit by bit and then recreating it from the new fabric seemed the most logical way to do it.

We’re no experts at reupholstering, so it was a daunting project for us, but we’re so pleased with the result, it’s made the conservatory set look completely refreshed and new. We hope you love it as much as us!

Willow Bough is such a beautiful design, it was first designed by William Morris in 1887. It was actually first produced as a wallpaper design which his daughter, May Morris, used to decorate her bedroom. Later, it was adapted for fabric in 1895, where it was block printed in Merton Abbey.

The finished result of our William Morris fabric recovering

We hope you like the project as much as us! If you recover something using our fabric, be sure to tag us, we’d love to see it!

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When cutting fabric stacks, we always wonder what is being made from them, we often get messages about quilts being stitched together with various tonal colours, curtains ready to be part of daily life or dresses being sewn to be worn to the next big event, so if you ever make anything from our fabrics- whether it be a huge project or a tiny one made of our scrap bundles, do let us know what you make! 🪡🧵
Can you name the designs within the photo? All sold by the half meter, £18.50 per metre of cotton, £20.50 per metre of heavyweight cotton 🫶🏻
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#williammorris #wmorris #morrisfabric #floralfabric #quiltingcotton
Mid week tables require; a vase of gorgeous fresh flowers, as many sweet treats as you can get your hands on, and of course, a gorgeous tablecloth set- this Willow Bough blue is one of our all time favourite William Morris designs, it’s utterly timeless and so beautiful 🌿
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The table details;
Willow Bough blue napkins- £16.99
Willow Bough tablecloths- starting at £29.99 depending on size 
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #willowbough #englishdesign #myfloralhome
A little update from us 🇬🇧
From 1st July, our product prices will be increasing due to continued rises in manufacturing and material costs.
We’ve worked hard to absorb these increases for as long as possible, but to continue providing the quality you expect from us, a small price adjustment is now necessary.
Every product we create is proudly printed and manufactured here in the UK, using high-quality materials and processes that ensure a finish we’re proud of. Our fabrics are all digitally printed to give a crisp finish.
If you’ve been thinking about placing an order, now is the perfect time — all orders placed before 1st July will be at our current prices.
To thank you for your support, we’re offering an exclusive discount before the new prices take effect.
Use code: thankyou
Enjoy 10% off your order until 14th June
This is the perfect opportunity to place your order at current prices and enjoy an additional saving before the increase.
Thank you for supporting a UK small business and for choosing quality. We truly appreciate every order ❤️
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#uksmallbiz #madeintheuk #williammorris #fabricstore #floralfabric
Gorgeous postbox 📮 If you’d like a free sample of any of our fabrics just send us a message and we’ll get them sent out to you 💌 If you’re ordering from abroad, we will always take the parcel to the post office to make sure we’re comparing different postage methods to get the best postage prices for you- we’re wanting to spread the floral goodness global! Today I pottered to the post office to send a lovely pvc apron to Australia which is amazing that Morris is well known world wide! 🐨🦘🇦🇺 
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #smallukbusiness #fabricdesign #postboxesofinstagram
The best season is peony season 🫶🏻 Our favourite flowers, having peonies blooming in the house is always the best ✨ This is our William Morris Merton design, the most stunning blue and white pattern is so timeless ✨
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#strawberrythief #williammorris #williammorrisdesign #birddesign #floralfabric
We want to say a huge THANK YOU to all our lovely customers who have been so patient with us whilst our website checkout has been all in a tizzy - and thank you for your orders on another platform, we appreciate you keeping us going as a small business- but, we’re back up and running now so please use code: THANKYOU at checkout for 15% off until Sunday 🫶🏻✨ (song was me when we finally got tech issues fixed 🫠😂)
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#williammorrisfabric #williammorris #wmorris #floralteatowel #williammorrisdesign
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#williammorris #williammorrisdesign #strawberrythief #ukfabric #curtainfabric
The soundtrack to our day- our fabric cutter! 🎼 If you ever order fabric from us this is how we get our cuts so straight ☺️ Did you know that we sell our fabrics by the half meter, so however big or small your project is, we’ve got fabric for you ☺️ This is our gorgeous William Morris Strawberry Thief blue design, it’s very often on our cutting table as it’s so popular! Do you prefer it in red or in blue? 🍓 
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#williammorris #fabricbytheyard #fabricbymeter #floralfabric #ukfabric