July 29, 2015In the Studio

The Making of the Regatta Print

Inspired by Sailing in Salcombe

Even if you’re not a sailor, watching yachts and dinghies race around the estuary are a such a big part of Salcombe life we really wanted to illustrate it in one of our Salcombe Collection designs. There are boat races throughout the year, but especially during the annual Regatta, hence the name, the Regatta print!

We also wanted to include a reference to the ferry boats that dart back and forth from Salcombe across to the beach at East Portsmouth and out to South Sands. The South Sands Ferry and its cheery flag bunting inspired us to create the ferry flag print to complement the Regatta boat design.

Designing the Regatta Print

We had a fairly clear idea of this design before we began, it was just a matter of time (quite a lot of time!) to illustrate all the details. We experimented with an overlay of the water layer to give a sense of movement to the print, but decided we preferred a sharper look.

Sampling the Print

Once the design was finished we separated it and exposed a mesh screen for each colour for screen printing. This design has five colours, so we made five screens. You can see three of them below:

We printed a sample, checking the colours and making sure that everything was aligning properly. Here the blue layer is done, and the red layer is being printed:

Printing the Regatta Fabric

When we were ready to go, two tables of 35 metres each were set up and laid out with fabric for printing. The repeats were printed alternately so the print could dry without getting smudged when printing directly next to it.

Making Regatta Quilts and Cushions

After all the fabric was hand printed we refined product details like the edging on the cushions. We asked our lovely instagram followers to help us decide which style of ferry flag edging they preferred and we went with the one on the right:

Our quilts were made by layering cotton sheets between the fabric and stitching by hand:

And finally, the Regatta quilt! Hand stitched and filled with soft cotton, a beautiful and versatile, timeless piece of nautical style:

We just love the Regatta cushion covers! The ferry flag bunting edging is a really fun touch and they’re also reversible with the illustrative boat print on one side and the graphic ferry flag print on the other, so you get two looks in one:

Shop our Salcombe Collection here.