Why May’s Coverlet is our favourite embroidery fabric

WOVEN IN HISTORY: A True heritage hero

Embroidered fabrics are really capturing imaginations in interior design right now. Their beautiful, tactile weaves offer an irresistible hand-crafted feeling, helping to add a homely note to any space. If you’re looking for ways to use embroidered fabrics in your home, or trying to choose the perfect design, this is the place to be.

May's Coverlet, taken from the Emery Walker’s House collection, showcases the traditional embroidery skills that helped make Morris & Co. one of the foremost companies of the Arts & Crafts movement. Now a contemporary design tailor-made for 21st-century homes, May’s Coverlet has to be our favourite embroidery right now.

AN INCREDIBLE HISTORY

In the bedroom of Sir Emery Walker, the noted typographer and friend of William Morris, lies the original crewel embroidered coverlet, now translated into a fabric design by the Morris & Co. design studio. Woven by May Morris, daughter of William, for Emery’s wife, Mary, during the last bedridden years of her life, it demonstrated the incredible feat reached by May’s needlework. The intricacy of the work goes some way to explaining why May was the head of Morris & Co.’s Embroidery Department from the humble age of 23.

HAND-FINISHED CRAFTSMANSHIP

In the original, May painstakingly wove every stitch, paying particular attention to the raised embroidered figures of the flowerheads.

To retain May’s careful stitching pattern, we’ve used a hand-guided embroidery method on a 100% linen base cloth.  

DRAPE DREAM

Depicting floral sprays amid an interlacing border pattern, May’s Coverlet is set to introduce harmonious pattern into your space. Offering a tactile, tapestry feeling, its floral miniatures bring jewel-like colours to life in any space.

COSY CUSHION

For a smaller change but with no less impact, consider using May’s Coverlet to adorn your favourite cushion. With its sumptuous, embroidered linen feel, May’s Coverlet’s floral sprays bring colour and a light-hearted mood to sofas and armchairs.

Want to introduce May’s Coverlet into your home but don’t know where to start? Order a sample here, or have a look at our moodboarding masterclass.