The Magic of Soft Furnishings - A talk by Jennie May

On 5 November we had the pleasure of welcoming Soft Furnishings expert Jennie May, from Montrose, Angus, who gave us a most interesting talk on how soft furnishings can completely transform a room and the process involved in creating the new furnishings. And there's a lot more to it than meets the eye. 

But first, Jennie explained what soft furnishings are, namely items made from textiles to decorate/furnish a home, such as curtains, cushions, blinds, throws, rugs, bedding. 

These can completely transform a room by adding colour, texture, warmth and personality. They can also be used to change the feel of a room depending on the season, for example by swapping out cushions and throws. 

Jennie meets her clients on site to get a feel for their style and tastes and find out their requirements, as well as take accurate measurements and note any potential obstacles and work out the best suspension system for curtains and blinds. 

Narrowing down the potential choices of fabrics often first involves eliminating what the client doesn't like, and then working out the most suitable types of fabric and the need for lining and interlining (a kind of thin wadding). Jennie can then order some samples for the clients to consider in different lights/times of day. 

Once the quote has been accepted by the client, Jennie can place the order. She takes delivery of the fabric and does a thorough check to make sure there are no faults before starting making the items. There is a lot more to this process than one can imagine, and each step is essential to ensure a top-notch result. And many of those steps are done by hand. Good quality curtains that hang just right, will give years or even decades of pleasure so it's worth spending the time and money. 

But, as Jennie pointed out, you don't necessarily need to buy the most important fabric for your soft furnishings. It's how they are made that's most important. 

Another interesting point that Jennie made was that if you are sticking to neutral tones, it's especially important to use different textures to avoid everything looking flat. 

Jennie really got us thinking about what soft furnishings could do for our home and the importance of top quality craftsmanship to achieve the best results. 

Thank you Jennie! 

Interlinings:

upholstering a footstool - workshop with Sue Macnab - 22/10/25

On 22 October 2025, we had the pleasure of welcoming Sue Macnab, upholsterer, who taught us how to upholster a footstool from scratch, or renovate an old one. The first step was sticking a thick piece of foam to the wooden or plywood base to hold it in place. This was then covered by a piece of wadding, then by a larger piece of Calico cotton, which was tightened and held in place on the underside of the wood with tacks on all 4 sides, but leaving the corners free. The cotton was then further tightened and retacked to create a smooth, rounded padded surface. With the tacks only lightly hammered in, it was easy to remove and reposition them. Then, once the tension was perfect, the corners were folded neatly and tacked into place before using a staple gun to fix everything down, removing the tacks we went. We then added our upholstery fabric, using the same process as for the Calico cotton, to first tack it in place, retighten, fold the corners and finally using the staple gun to hold everything in place. The underside of the stool was then covered with another fabric, stapling the folded in edges in place with a staple gun. Finally we added the legs and all our footstools were done! They were all different and equally stunning. Thank you to Sue for a fantastic class where we not only learned a lot, but amazingly all managed to finish! And we even got a bit of an upper body workout in the process!

'Natural Elements - an Introduction to Botanical Printing' - talk by Linda Marshall

 Linda is well known for her beautiful silk scarves printed with leaves and flowers and all natural colours. She brought along examples of the lovely work, and gave a detailed demonstration of how she makes them. The first picture shows a selection of leaves from all sorts of plants and trees, along with a few flowers.

A length of silk, which has been prepared to make it receptive to taking the prints by washing and using soya milk to soak it, is laid on a piece of polythene. Then the leaves are randomly placed on the silk, and another piece of silk is added over the first piece. This is then tightly rolled up over a thick dowel rod and tightly bound. It is then steamed in a fish kettle for around 70 minutes, and when cool is unrolled. The leaves are removed, and excitement rises as the leaves reveal their imprints. It is so surprising that green leaves don't make a green imprint, but have a lovely range of subtle colours.

The dark scarf is made from silk Linda has dyed purple from Brazilian logwood, and similar process takes place by making the silk sandwich, but in this the tannin in the leaves reacts with the tannin in the dyed cloth and discharges the colour, making a negative print, which is very beautiful.

The scarves are air dried, then washed and ironed, and the colours are fast and will not fade on washing. Linda's scarves can be purchased at Hand Pict in Letham, and one or two other outlets, and she also runs workshops if you fancy making you own scarf.

New term begins - tea and a catch up

 A great turnout of members,catching up with each other after the summer break and welcoming new members. Committee members brought delicious eats, and there was a display of some of the things that have been made during the year. Lovely to see everyone again.

Programme for 2025/2026

 The new programme is now uploaded to the Programme page above. After the lovely summer we have had (unless you're a farmer), it will be great to see everyone again.

AGM and Challenge

 Our AGM was held today as we break up for the summer. The new committee members were elected, secretary's and treasurer's reports read, and Nancy and Pat received lovely gifts of flowers and plants as they stood down from their roles. 

We had a lovely tea with tasty bakes by the committee, and the Challenge was voted for. This year the theme was 'Happiness', and Norma won with her beautiful book, which had many pages with embroideries inspired by what family members defined as happiness, including holidays, fishing, Prosecco and Jaguar cars!

We will meet up again On Wednesday 17th September. Hope everyone enjoys a wonderful summer.

'How to Take a Good Photograph' - talk by Jeni Reid

We enjoyed a very interesting and helpful talk from Jeni on taking good photos with our phones. Jeni is a professional photographer and takes stunning pictures, but her tips and advice were geared to us 'happy snappers'. She explained how to choose good compositions and to edit these to get the best components of a picture. 

Advice on looking in the every day for our inspiration, and thinking about whether homing in on a subject or drawing back would suit it better. 

Looking at the light and shadows to achieve a particular ambience, and how to choose the right setting to take advantage of the light, to make the subjects softer or crisper, and the effect of the colour or the light, e.g. cold winter light or warm lamplight.

Taking photos from a different angle, such as kneeling g or even laying down to get a different perspective on the subject.

Tips for taking photos of people included not posing them, but snapping them while they are doing something and are unaware, as we all tend to 'freeze' when being posed.

And a clever tip for a group photo to avoid someone having their eyes closed - tell everyone to close their eyes, count to three and open them, and take the snap - simple and brilliant!

I shall definitely take these tips on board, and hope my not very great photos will improve.