Production Stories: The Neptune Flags Collection, a zero waste textile project

Neptune has a core collection of fabrics which are complimented each season by introducing unique prints or specialist woven wools, creating a rich and diverse collection of interior fabrics. These seasonal fabrics sometimes make it onto the main roster to become a permanent addition to the collection; however, they will often be phased out after around six months to a year of production. The textile flags are then made redundant and have traditionally been sent to landfills, where we come in to repurpose these beautiful fabrics into brand-new, unique textile pieces.

The initial sketchbook pages for the Flags collection designs, inspired by sail cloths, spinnakers and the coastal landscape.

At first, we were slightly wary of working with waste; traditionally, our brand ethos is to work with fabrics with a transparent supply chain and the highest possible environmental standards (which is why we work with linen, organic cotton and organic wool).

However, the challenge that working with waste presented was too good an opportunity to pass up, so we dove in headfirst (literally, the box was so big we could have jumped in!). Initially, the volume and diversity of the fabric were overwhelming; however, once it was sorted into colour stories, the ideas started to flow, and we began to see a collection emerging.

As always, we began the process with a series of sketches, which we then worked up into gouache paintings to ensure that all fabric choices would sit well within the design. The primary consideration during the initial drawing process was creating a design that could accommodate the textile flags' specific size. This strict parameter gave us an exact maximum size of panel which could be included in the design, as well as dictating how many fabrics needed to be used in each quilt. The answer to that little puzzle was to use five fabrics (plus natural linen for the backs and binding); the next part of the puzzle was to find five complimentary fabrics from within the Neptune stash and work out how they would fit together within the design.

The moodboard and painting for the ‘winter’ quilt.

Each quilt comprises five fabric flags, with enough left after the pattern-cutting stage to create a range of complimentary cushions. The challenge we set ourselves was to have as little fabric left as possible, and I am pleased to share that after some wrangling, we have less than 100g of cloth remaining from each seasonal collection.

Commissions and collaborations are fantastic places to experiment with new techniques and ideas, and in this collection, we have decided to do something different with the stitching. For our previous collaboration with Neptune, we worked with a manufacturer to quilt the layers on a long-arm quilting machine.

However, over the past year, the studio has been experimenting with hand quilting and the diversity of the fabrics in this collection offered the perfect opportunity to explore this further. All of the quilts in this collection have been pieced, stitched, quilted, and finished in our London studio, each taking around twenty hours to complete.

The mood board and painting for the ‘Autumn’ quilt.

The hand quilting has allowed us to control the tension across the different weights of cloth, creating a depth of texture we haven’t achieved before and marking an exciting new chapter for the studio quilt collections.

This is just the beginning of what we hope will be a new stream to our way of working and the start of many exciting brand collaborations, creating pieces which put discarded cloth at the heart of the project.