Merchant and Mills Blog

Christmas At The Grove

Thank you so much to everyone who visited The Grove on Saturday 14th December for our very first Open House event. It felt really special to open the doors to the Merchant & Mills home and welcome you all into our world.

Since buying and renovating the house in 2021, it’s been a canvas for our interior ideas and projects; a gallery for Carolyn’s collection of art, furniture, trinkets and treasures and, of course, host to the many wonderful creative retreat guests that we welcome each month of the year. Until now it’s been a bit of a midnight garden. Tucked away, unassuming, beyond Rye railway. Opening our doors on Saturday made it feel like a home, one where our ideas and inspirations live. And now yours too.

Decorating The Grove for Christmas allowed us to explore our ideas for a more sustainable and mindful approach to festive décor. With ‘less is more’ in mind, we gathered together fabric scraps and offcuts and went out foraging around Rye for branches and foliage. The result managed to be both minimal and magical.

Nearly all of these decorations can be made for free; quickly and simply using fabric waste and items found out on Wintery walks.

You can find patterns for the home textiles we've used throughout The Grove in our Grove Creations PDF Pattern Bundle, including the patterns for: A Duvet Set, Pillowcase, Quilt Sofa/Bed Topper & a Relaxed Blind.

Pictured below:

  • Stockings and drawstring present sacks, both patterns from our Less Than A Metre collection that can be made with offcuts and remnants.
  • Garlands made using strips of offcut fabrics to decorate the fireplaces and dining table. Our garlands have been made using offcuts of Crabapple Handwoven Cotton Check.
  • Foliage foraged from the forest floor to adorn the fireplace.
  • A tree decorated simply with fabric scraps tied around the branches.
  • A length of unhemmed cloth, draped as a table cloth. We chose our Bitter Cocoa Garden Party Linen.
  • Strings of bunting made using fabric scraps from the sewing studio.

 

 

 

 

Make a Fabric Shower Curtain

These instructions show you how to make a fabric shower curtain with separate waterproof lining.

A single curtain will be enough for a regular bath with a curtain across the front. If you have a free-standing bath with circular rail then you will need to make two separate curtains to go around either side (like our pictures below). We have chosen to make ours in an extra wide size (240cm wide) to give a luxurious drape, but you can make a standard width (180cm wide) if this suits your room better.

We have based our curtain on a finished length of 188cm. To make a different length, decide on your finished length by measuring from the pole to where you want your curtain to finish, and add 12cm. You will need to replace the 2M length requirements below with your own measurement. For example: Finished length 230cm + 12cm = 242cm length of fabric (x 1,2 or 3 depending on width of fabric – see below requirements).

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS:

For the standard width curtain:

90cm wide fabrics – use three 2M lengths seamed together (or 5 lengths if making two curtains).

110cm - 120cm wide fabrics – use two 2M lengths seamed together (or four lengths if making two curtains).

130cm-150cm wide fabrics – use two 2M lengths seamed together lengthways (or three lengths if making two curtains).

280cm extra wide linen – use one 2M length (or two lengths if making two curtains).

For the extra wide curtain:

90cm – 120cm wide fabrics – use three 2M lengths seamed together lengthways (or six lengths if making two curtains).

130cm-150cm wide fabrics – use two 2M lengths seamed together lengthways (or four lengths if making two curtains).

280cm extra wide linen – use one 2M length (or two lengths if making two curtains).

 

YOU WILL NEED:

Standard width plastic shower curtain (180cm x 180cm long) x 1 (2 if making two curtains) OR extra wide plastic shower curtain (240cm wide x 180cm long) x 1 (2 if making two curtains).

Once you have your plastic shower curtain, count the number of holes and buy the same number of curtain hooks and eyelets as the curtain.

Double shower hooks like this.

Same quantity of shower hooks as eyelets on the plastic shower curtain (x 2 if making two).

Eyelets - same quantity as on the plastic shower curtain (x 2 if making two).

Strip of woven interfacing 5cm x finished width of curtain (x2 if making two).

 

METHOD:

Seam your two or three fabric pieces together lengthways (parallel to the selvedge) if required. Once seamed together, you will need to cut your piece to 192cm wide x 200cm long for each standard width curtain, or 252cm wide x 200cm long for each extra wide curtain.

Press in 1cm all around sides and bottom, then 5cm in all around.

Unfold the top edge and iron your 5cm deep strip of interfacing 6cm down from the top raw edge. The top edge of the interfacing should line up with the second pressed line down.

Mitre the bottom corners like this:

Edgestitch down round sides and bottom hem.

Re press the raw top edge down by 1cm, then press down by 5cm and edge stitch.

Measure the position of the plastic shower curtain eyelets, copy these exactly onto the top edge of the fabric curtain. Add eyelets where you have marked.

To hang:

Hang the curtain hooks over the shower rail. Attach the fabric curtain to the outer part of the hooks and the plastic curtain to the inner hooks.

 

Below are some suggestions of suitable fabirc:

The Trapeze - The Party Dress Hack

We’ve written a new pattern hack for The Trapeze, adding a full, double layered gathered skirt with a ribbon tie back. The result is playful and fun and the perfect canvas for a bright or embellished fabric. We chose our new Flame Tumbled Cotton Poplin (and the Alma cotton voile for lining). Because poplin is a tightly woven cloth and quite crispy it gives the dress a sculptural look. If you choose something softer like an Indian cotton it will have a softer silhouette.

We recommend using woven cottons (2-4.3oz) for this make, to achieve the crisp finish on the visible gather detail. Some suggestions would be: Tumbled cotton poplin, block print cotton, hemp/cotton blend, fine Indian hand weaves, Japanese cotton poplin and triple wash.

We bagged our bodice out with self fabric, but used a light cotton voile/muslin for the skirt lining.

Depending on the fabric you choose, there are two options for the skirt volume – gathered x 3 for finer cottons (up to 3oz) which gives a nice full skirt, or gathered x 2 for more sculptural cottons (up to 4.3oz) like our tumbled cotton poplin. Be aware that there is a lot of gathering to the skirt and if you choose a denser fabric then it will be harder to gather neatly which is why we have created the 2 x gather version.

You'll need the The Trapeze pattern and you can download the instructions here.

Fabrics pictured from left to right - Whitby Jet Tumbled Poplin, Oki Mini Spot Basil, Navy Triple Wash, Papercut Black, Kali Black and Forest Haze.

 

Sanda Jacket Hack for Thicker Woollens

We chose to make a Sanda jacket in our luxurious thick alpaca in a slightly longer length. For this hack you will need to buy the Sanda pattern here.

Above, Sacha is wearing the Sanda in our Dusty Blush Alpaca Blend Wool.

This hack will require 30cms more self and lining fabric than required for the jacket version of the Sanda.

These are the changes we made to the pattern to make our sample:

We increased the overall length of the jacket, by adding 12cms to the FRONT(1) and BACK(2) pieces. Make sure you also add the same length to the FRONT AND BACK YOKE FACING(4) and FRONT AND BACK YOKE LINING(10) pieces.

We added 1.5cm around the whole PATCH POCKET(8) to make it a little bigger. We did the same with the PATCH POCKET LINING(12) but didn’t add anything to the top edge of this piece.

We lowered the position of the patch pockets so they sit 5cm up from hemline.

We omitted the interfacing to reduce bulk, if the wool you have chosen frays you can interface the corners that you will clip.

Due to the thickness of the cloth we altered the sleeve pattern at the cuff to make the turn up a little more substantial. This is how we did it:

STEP 1: Cut through the FOLDLINE near the bottom of the sleeve as shown by the thicker line below:

STEP 2: Place some paper behind the pieces and add in 2cm total, stick down ensuring the lines remain parallel.

Redraw the FOLDLINE in – in the midpoint between the two pieces so you have 1cm above and below the new FOLDLINE.

Also draw in a new HEMLINE – 5cms below the new FOLDLINE.

 

STEP 3: Measure outwards either side of the new FOLDLINE by 1cm – see image below.

Join this point back in to the two marked HEMLINES. This will stop the cuff from hugging the sleeve hem too tightly and allow it to sit nicely when turned up.

Below are some suggestions of wools that would be perfect for this Sanda hack. 
From left to right: Seaglass Wool Coating, Mojito Wool Coating, Towner Navy Wool Coating, Emerald Alpaca Blend Wool, Dusty Blush Alpaca Blend Wool, Yogi Alpaca Blend Wool, Fall Trail Wool Coating, Mottled Blue Wool Coating, Vermont Wool Coating.

The Paynter - A Patch Pocket Hack

The two-way access bellow hip pockets on the Paynter jacket are a stand out feature, but also one of the trickier elements of the project. We have put together a video to walk you through the bellow pocket construction here. The bellow pockets have 9 layers of cloth; so if your cloth is on the heavier side you may wish to avoid this feature. This patch pocket is also an easier sew for sure! You can switch it up for a simpler style patch pocket version by following these instructions:

The cloth pictured is our Dusk Crinkle Cotton.