Beautiful Woad

I’ve tried making woad a few times – always from my allotment plants which are gradually colonising more and more of my allotment…. These beautiful stately plants with their long, grey green leaves and clouds of yellow flowers have always been slightly illusive to me – promising colour but always slightly slipping away when I […]

Dyeing with weld

This is a quick blog to tell you more about dyeing with weld – one of our most ancient and powerful of dye plants. Until the 1930’s it was still commercially grown in this country and I hope one day we will return to it as it is so very generous in colour and so […]

Learning how to block print with natural dyes

This is something I’ve been fascinated by for a very long time and over the years pieces of the jigsaw puzzle have gradually fallen into place. Finally after much trial and error I have developed a simple process of block printing with natural dyes that I’m reasonably confident in and am able to reproduce and […]

Coming out as Sarah Burns Patterns

I’ve called my textile dyeing & printing business Dora Fabrics since I graduated from Chelsea – somehow it felt safer to be someone else but now I’m finally coming out as me – Sarah Burns Patterns and it feels good! Here is more about me, what inspires me and how I work (thanks to www.handprinted.com […]

Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft

This week I’ve had the chance to visit the wonderful Museum of Arts and Crafts in Ditchling, West Sussex this week with a new delivery of my Dora Fabrics wash bags, aprons and tea towels… I have so many happy memories of cycling through this sleepy Sussex village on hot summers day (it never rains on the […]