I’m very excited to introduce our first batch of paper patterns!!!
This is something that has been on my mind for a long time and it’s so nice to finally see it through to fruition. Emily (my wonderful assistant) has taken on this project and done such a great job. The boxes arrived in the studio this week and they look so slick and professional and downright beautiful. Well done Emily!
Emily looking happy (and relieved!) after opening the delivery!
Expanding into paper patterns has always felt like an interesting and necessary project to do. Interesting because I love developing a new product and necessary because for each PDF pattern we sell, someone somewhere has to print it. So providing a pattern that’s already printed felt like a natural progression for us.
We started to delve into this idea at the beginning of summer and it’s been fun figuring out how to approach it. One of our first decisions was to launch a smaller range as converting our full range of 22 patterns felt like a mammoth task. We decided to test the waters with our 3 best sellers, the Worker Trousers, Classic Shirt and Jamie Jacket.
So, how did we develop these lovely paper patterns?
The hunt for a printer started when Emily dug out a booklet she picked up from the Alice Neil exhibition at the Barbican. We both loved this exhibition and I wrote about it in a blog post in spring of 2023 (you can read it here). The exhibition booklet was beautifully printed on newsprint with a thicker cover, pieced together with two gold staples. It was such a lovely piece of printing and it was the starting point for our inspiration.
Turning to the last page of the booklet we found the printers credited and got in touch with them. After a couple of weeks of digging around lots of different options from different companies we eventually decided that our ‘inspiration’ printers were the ones for us. We were so delighted to confirm the project with them and so next it was on to the design.
Early drafting of design ideas.
Photographing the garments in the studio.
We wanted the envelopes to grab your attention, to look clean and intriguing and immediately recognisable as a Modern Sewing Co. product. Deciding on how the garment would be photographed was the first decision. We wanted the design to show a hint of our studio and after bouncing around a few options we decided on hanging the garment from a single rope on our brightest wall.
Next we brainstormed the fabric colours for each garment to make sure it summed up the pattern while also looking great from a distance as a printed envelope. Emily then built a colour palette for the graphics to work around the fabric colours to make each envelope ‘pop’ while also looking great as a complete set.
Confirming the printed colours with swatch options.
Prototype of the envelope design.
When it came to the mechanics of the envelope we wanted it to look intentionally designed rather than a standard format. The curve of our logo is reflected in the flap and we love how punchy that looks when paired with the contrast colours. It was important to us that the back looked just as considered as the front and we’re really happy with the result.
Moving on to what’s INSIDE the envelopes, we have our patterns printed on 70gsm paper in A0 size. This weight of paper will be robust enough to withstand many cutting sessions which should be useful for these timeless patterns. Our instructions booklets have been redesigned with the new format in mind, with plenty of spacing and a big font size for easy reading.
We hope you love these patterns as much as we do and if you have any comments or questions feel free to hit reply to this email!
Hetty & Emily
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