When I was a little girl in the Seventies,Clothkits were the last word in style — amongst the under tens. Consisting of kits of fabric, thread & all the notions necessary for making up the garment, the USP was the avoidance of paper patterns: the pattern pieces were printed directly onto the fabric. All one needed was a pair of scissors.
My friends & I all wore a lot of Clothkits, run up on cranky old Singer sewing machines. There were kapok-stuffed cotton dolls too made from designs printed on the spare pieces of fabric: I also had a beloved blue & white sailor doll & my sis had a red Golly. I’m filled with nostalgic thrills to see the company (which closed in 1985) relaunched for the 21st century. It’s perfect timing: craft and home sewing has seen a resurgence in the last couple of years, and with the global recession only just starting, the low prices are a proper selling point. (The skirt kit above is just £35.)
Clothkits were famous for — and identifiable by — their whimsical textile prints, and the re-launch of the company (for adults too) by artist Kay Mawer has seen collaborations with some wonderful contemporary artists and designers including screen printer Jane Foster, the glorious Rob Ryan and designers People Will Always Need Plates. This skirt is the current Rob Ryan Design:
I particularly love this skirt:
All images reproduced from the Clothkits website.
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Oh yes. Clothkits, me too. I remember my very favourite dress (quite Rob Ryan actually, now I think of it) had the perfect sized pocket on the chest which exactly fitted a Club biscuit/Breakaway for breaktime.
One of my friends had a Clothkits clown costume! Inspired.
It’s like the flatpack of clothes.
Oh God yes, me three. I loved all their stuff. We had the most FANTASTIC reversible waitcoat — very shaggy white fake fur on one side, purple pattern printed on the other. J now has my Kitty rag doll — fished her out of the chaotic bedroom this morning. She needs a little mending — will sort her out, find all the clothes then post some pics.
I’d LOVE to have that skirt kit. Wow.
This is amazingly pertinent. I am considering taking up a dressmaking class at my local adult education centre. I haven’t done so much as sew on a button since school (when I in fact sewed my skirt to the pinny we were making). I’m sure it’s credit crunch inspired, but it would be fabulous to make something oneself.
I don’t think clothkits crossed the pond in the 70’s or my mom would have been all over them, but what a great idea!
I love Rob Ryan in any form.
Rob Ryan is my favourite living artist. His work just makes me feel good.
Before this collaboration with cloth kits he worked with the label Alabama. the results were rather stunning. Somewhere buried in my blog is a post about it.
I was so disappointed when clothkits were no more . Sewed lots of things from my favourite shoulder bag to dresses and dolls for our two daughters , now well into their thirties . Now I can start again for our grandchildren , great thing always come again . Jean