Piglet in Bed x Beatrice Larkin

A/W Hot Water Bottle Collaboration

This A/W I’ve partnered with British bedding company Piglet in Bed on the second iteration of woven hot water bottle covers. After a successful collaboration last winter with my signature Type design brought out in a Piglet in Bed teal and oatmeal colourway, this year I’ve designed a bespoke pattern inspired by Piglet in Bed’s beautiful ginghams in my own hand drawn signature style.

 There are 6 hot water bottles in the collection in three different colourways, tying in with Piglet in Bed’s cosy ‘weekends at the cabin’ A/W collection.

Designing

I started the design process in April this year, researching ginghams, plaids and all manner of checks. I surrounded myself with inspiration, trawled the internet and sought out beautiful grids and patchworked compositions, anything that caught my eye and fit with the Piglet in Bed Autumnal cosy cabin colour palette. 

I’ll get my inks out and start making marks and doodling. It’s quite free at this point and I’m not thinking too much about a finished design. The marks are blotchy, inky and wobbly. Once I have a collection of these marks to work with, I’ll digitise and manipulate them into a repeat pattern, working with scale and layering until I’m happy with a few variations which are ready to send to the mill for sampling.

Sampling

For this project we’ve worked with John Spencer Textiles in Burnley, Lancashire. The mill is family owned and has been operating in Burnley since 1871. They have been such a wonderful company to work with, especially designer Kirsty Harper who has been on hand through the whole process. I sent my weave designs to Kirsty and she translated these into the mill’s Jacquard software ready for weaving. 

The Jacquard loom allows me to create an intricate weave and emphasises my hand drawn style, meaning the inky lines from the initial sketch can be seen in the finished fabric. Before rolling out the full fabric run it was really important to sample some designs with the mill, testing weave structures, scale and colour variations.

Weaving and Finishing

In August I met with Lucia from Piglet in Bed and we visited the mill to go behind the scenes and see the final fabric being woven. It’s such a satisfying process to see your designs coming to life in front of your eyes. My 2023 bespoke plaid design comes in two colourways and with each, the fabric is double sided, making four hot water bottles in Cider, Tawny, Blue Jay and Sea Holly. We’ve also brought back the popular Type design but this year in an Evergreen and Dandelion. 

Once the fabric was woven it was sent to be finished at WT Johnsons in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. The washing and brushing of the fabric are crucial parts of the process which brings out the luxurious weft yarn. This Italian spun extra fine merino yarn is usually used in the fashion industry for high end knitwear but I have found it works so well for my super soft throws, cushions, scarves and hot water bottles, I haven’t been able to find anything comparable.

Sewing

Towards the end of August three huge rolls of fabric arrived at my Margate studio as well as hundreds of rubber hot water bottles and the final stage of manufacturing began. I usually sew all my products together, but for this scale, I found two amazing local makers, Dee Godber of Suede and Co and Clare Roberts of Mor Makes and between the three of us we spent some very sunny September days sewing together woollen hot water bottle covers.

It has been such a pleasure to work with a company like Piglet in Bed. The team are so lovely and it has been a joy to be part of their A/W 23 campaign. The design and manufacturing process has taken over six months and included so many people in the process. I’m really proud to be able to manufacture this fabric in the UK and I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped make it happen.  

Take a look at the full collection here