Stocking up

What a glorious autumn day!  Bright blue skies, traces of frost on the stone walls, golden, red and brown woods, the soft purpley, blue and green of the hillsides and that hint of cold that energises you into preparing for winter.  A great time for stocking up and settling in - we went to visit my mother yesterday and came away laden with jars of homemade chutney and jam. 

I've also been replenishing the stores at my furoshiki and have that happy sense that our website and all our shops - Folksy, Etsy (US dollars), Coriandr and Dawanda (euros) are now stocked with the full range of our own design, hand screenprinted furoshiki.  These are the perfect size for reusable gift wrapping, be it a couple of jars of jam, some homemade biscuits, or a fruit loaf (my mind is definitely in provisioning mode!).  If you're spoilt for choice, there's now free UK delivery on all orders over £10 and a flat rate of £2 p&p on orders of £10 or less - so no excuse for not stocking up yourselves!

UK Handmade

Fresh off the presses is the Autumn edition of UK Handmade magazine - and I've just been having a quick browse as amongst arigumi creations, japanese inspired cupcakes and halloween cats, it features instructions for a furoshiki wrap from us. Happy wrapping!

Time for a break!

Myfuroshiki will be closed until 1 September whilst Oli and I recharge our batteries ready for an exciting spring / autumn. Here's a sneak preview of some of the things we've been working on:

Fabulous silk furoshiki, for luxury gift wrapping, evening or wedding bags


In keeping with furoshiki's environmentally friendly ethos, we're introducing a range of our own design, organic cotton furoshiki.

and creating some 'boro' (rag) furoshiki from (well washed) recycled fabric.


Happy holidays! Mich

Bradford Treehouse Cafe

Just a few photos from a fun day at the Bradford Treehouse Cafe where there was glass making, face painting and other activities plus a few stalls ... and some delicious flapjack. Thanks to Kat aka Mrs SewandSew for organising the market.

Laura's Little Lovelies


Dig the Earth


and myfuroshiki

Pretty Party Bags

My social life has gone completely to pot, but Lily and George are the veritable party animals. George's 1st birthday party is coming up this month and I was wondering if there was a more eco friendly alternative to the conventional plastic party bags. Here are some of the furoshiki party wraps that I've been working on which are available on Etsy. Each has a pretty fabric tie attached, so you simply fill the centre of the wrap with goodies and then scoop them up inside and make a bow around the top to form cute little party treat bundles. Pretty, original and reusable!

I love handmade

Handmade things have that extra something special, that extra bit of imagination, effort and care which makes them so unique. Kev Connell of DigTheEarth celebrates these in his I Love Handmade blog which brings a daily dose of handmade loveliness. Today's post featured the work of the extremely talented Buri Boo, winner of Leeds Emerging Artist Award 2010, who was at yesterday's Folksy party - and last Friday's post was a myfuroshiki flexible furoshiki bag! Thank you, Kev, for including us in such great company!

Recycle, recycle

A special piece of recycling for today - a return visit to a previous post on how we recycle when making furoshiki and their accessories.

We try to recycle in various ways, using recycled fabric (such as ex-display curtains) for furoshiki bags and using fabric remnants for patchwork, ties and pom poms. My favourite though are Oli's card creations, made from left over fabric and old packaging. The cards are in themselves reusable - simply replace the paper insert - and come with their own message for the recipient:

"Please reuse me again & again. A gift for the planet, as well as a friend."

A selection of cards is available on Etsy - with free shipping!