We are extending our January 10% Fabric & Curtain Sale until 18.2.12
Our friend LAURA THOMAS, Woven Textile Artist & Designer, wrote a very nice blog about The Linen Shop http://thewarpandweftblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/fran-white-linen-shop.html Fran gave a talk to the Horsham Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild - showing the production of linen from flax processing to hand and industrial weaving.
The Linen Shop exhibited at The Spirit of Christmas Fair at Olympia.
Curtaining, Blinds and Soft Furnishings At the Linen Shop we specialise in made to measure curtains and blinds in our fabrics. Please ask us for a free quote. We can provide a measuring service and recommend appropriate linen fabric for you, depending on your location. Contact us for more details.
Click on the below headings to view some images of our previous work.
Curtains / Blinds / Soft Furnishings
Visit the Online Store for our range of beautiful designer linens and order up to 5 free swatches. Please contact us if you would like to borrow larger returnable sample
The Linen Shop exhibited at the Spirit of Summer fair at Olympia 11-14 May. The fair visitors were very enthusiastic about our stand which displayed linen curtains & blinds as well as cushions, lampshades, clothing & aprons. The Roman blind is in Hamada Stripe zinc with a silver painted wooden pelmet. The curtains from the left are in Hamada Stripe Granite with eyelet heading, Swedish Sateen willow with floppy top heading, Hamada stripe soft rust with pencil pleat heading, Swedish Sateen iris with triple pinch pleat heading, Swedish Stripe cream with inverted box pleat heading, Swedish Sateen honey & Swedish Stripe sky both with pencil pleast heading and eyelet curtains in Stone Sateen oyster with Stone Sateen denim at the base.
The Linen Shop joined the warp + weft: from handloom to production Exhibition at SMITHS ROW, The Market Cross, Cornhill, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 1BT. 01284 762081.
 The Shop within the show DESIGNER CRAFTS @ MALL January 2011 
Gift Ideas from The Linen Shop
The Linen Shop exhibited at The warp+weft: from handloom to production Exhibition at The National Wool Museum, Wales SA44 5UP. http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/wool/ 
ART & TEXTILES EVENT held September 2010, with special guest textile artists. Please click here for more information
Thank you to everyone who visited our stall at the Selvedge Summer Fair on Saturday 26th June 2010. www.selvedge.org.YoYos
Cheerful and easy to make, these rosette style yoyos can be used to make garlands, quilts and accessories or to decorate scarves and cushions. Laura made a yo yo garland and then wrapped it around a cushion to give it a crafty touch. Moodboards
Looking for interior design ideas using our range of linens? For inspiration, we've come up with a few moodboards that could get you started. Click here to view them. Contemporary Textiles Fair, 13 - 14 March 2010 
Motif Tea Towels
Trudi appliqued these tea-towels with a cheerful motif. The base of the tea-towel was made using plain linen. She used a dense zig-zag stitch to edge the motif with the sewing machine. Festive Decorations  These linen decorations are very sweet - an alternative to baubles and tinsel. Parcel Cushion  
Laura made this patchwork style parcel cushion by folding squares of fabric, held in place with linen covered buttons.
Printing Workshops  
During the demonstration at our special birthday event in September we block printed onto tea towels made from our 'Landscapes - Clay' fabric. This is a particularly good linen to print and dye with. 10th Birthday CelebrationsOn the 10, 11 and 12 September we held a special event at our West Sussex shop to celebrate 10 years of trading. Thank you to everyone who made it. Our weaving, spinning and printing demonstrations were very successful, and particularly interesting was the spinning, demonstrated by Diane Wood. Diane spins her own linen yarn which she then weaves. Visit her website by clicking here.  
Spinning Linen 
Linen is made by spinning flax. Fibre is extracted from the stems of the flax plant and undergoes several processes (see right hand image above) before becoming a 'strick'. It is very soft and shiny, and looks like long blond hair. The fibres are separated, layered and rolled onto a distaff, an attachment to the spinning wheel. This process is known as 'dressing' the distaff. Ribbon is used to hold the fibres in place to stop them tangling, while the fibres are twisted away by the pulling motion of the spinning wheel.
Linen Covered Notebook
Another make-yourself idea - a notebook cover made from bits and pieces from a Bag of Linen Bits, available to buy online. This was handmade by a Linen Shop customer who kindly showed us what she'd made from our linen. The pieces she'd used had scalloped edges, which sewn together look like a hilly landscape! Bathroom Rag Rugs
Linen is very absorbent and dries quickly, so making a rag rug out of our fabric is ideal for a bathroom mat. You can buy balls of stripped linen in our shop for £4.20 each. Knit with thick needles to quickly create a homemade rag rug. 5 balls makes one mat measuring roughly 16cm x 28cm.
Handmade Companions
Choose a little friend from our range of Jack Rabbits, Ballerina Mice and Karate Kittens. Available to buy in various colours from the Online Shop. Handmade in the shop by Trudi. Early Woven Samples from Fran's Archive   Fran handwove these samples when she studied at Surrey Institite of Art and Design.
Handwoven 100% Linen Scarf 
 Laura hand wove this lightweight striped scarf with shades of warm yellow, blue grey and dusty pink. After weaving it went through a finishing process to soften it up and smooth it down.
Fran weaving a scarf on her loom.
Finishing a hand woven scarf. While wet the scarf is rolled with a wooden rolling pin on a wooden board .
This flattens and softens the fibres and also gives the linen it's lustre.
Images from Fran's Sketchbook 
One source of inspiration for Fran's woven designs came from washed up pebbles.
Colourful Linen Belt 
Trudi's belt was made using various linens from our collection. It is based on a design she found in her 'Golden Hands' collection of sewing magazines from the 1970s. Embellished Linen Skirt  Fran has decorated her linen skirt using her new 'embellishing' machine. It works by punching needles through layers of fabric and forcing the displaced fibres to join together. The fibres create a matted texture underneath the fabric, leaving the decorative surface layers to stay put without any stitch marks or glue. Coastlines Range of Summer Tote Bags
We've created a range of tote bags perfect for sunny times from our 'Coastlines' fabric collection. Durable enough for carrying heavy books or use as an alternative to plastic shopping bags. Now available to buy online. Ruffle Scarf  This scarf uses a technique known as hairpin crochet. It uses 4 balls of striped linen. Made by Trudi. Patchwork Drawings
Make texural drawings out of scraps of fabric. Trudi made this using a Bag of Linen Bits and a Bundle of Patchwork Pieces, available online. Inspiration was found outside the shop window. Decorate Anything with Buttons 
Bring new life to an old cushion, accessorize a pair of jeans or customise a bag. All our buttons are handmade in the shop using stainless steel forms. Packs of Assorted Buttons are available online, or visit us for a wide range of individual buttons, ranging from £1.25 to £2.35 each. Easy Patchwork Scarf  
Laura made this easy to sew patchwork scarf using a Bundle of Patchwork Pieces. It's a simple and personalised way of making a beautiful one-off scarf from our fabrics.
To make one like this, overlap the edges of each patchwork piece. Pin to keep in place and sew 2 rows of stitches to fasten each piece together. Leave enough overlapping round each joining seam for fringing. Finish by sewing a running stich around the edges of the scarf. Images from Fran's Print Portfolio 
Fran's portfolio shows a variety of printing techniques, including hand block printing and silk screening.
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