"I have a strong belief in supporting British manufacturing where I can and having that personal relationship with production"
Learn about Beatrice’s journey in her own words, follow this link to watch her film by Studio Mond, which was partly filmed at S Dawes Weaving in Colne. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk0ikcHMnxw&t=13s
Beatrice will exhibit her new collection at Decorex International, which takes place 6th – 9th October 2019 at Olympia London
Colne Mill leads the way, weaving quality fabrics with recycled yarn made from plastic bottles.
Here at S Dawes Weaving at Greenhill Mill in Colne, we take our responsibility for environmental impact very seriously. The demand from our customers for low environmental impact fabrics has grown over the last few years and led us to sourcing materials, which are grown with sustainability in mind.
We have
developed fabrics which are 90% recycled, woven with yarns made from old
clothing and plastics including plastic bottles. The fabrics in every way feel
and look the same as non-recycled products, there is no compromise in quality
or performance.
Fabrics woven with yarns made from recycled plastic bottles
Recycled Cotton is made from old clothing
Recycled Polyester is from plastic
bottles and other plastic waste
Since waste cotton is already pre
dyed re dying is not necessary. The environmental benefit due to the saving on
water, energy and chemical products is significant
Reduced CO2 emissions
Solar Energy is part used in
production
We hope in
2020 to launch fabrics which are 100% recycled, as every bit helps in the push
to save our planet.
We are also working with ‘The Better Cotton Initiative’ which is a worldwide organisation aimed at promoting sustainable farming methods and minimising environmental impact on the growing of cotton. It also ensures good working conditions and fair wages for workers. We are working with some of our major clients to promote this initiative and move as much production as possible to BCI Cotton.
Where ever possible we will continue to do all we can to help safeguard our environment for future generations
THE WEAVING GROUP The Biannual Conference of the Weaving Group 4th October 2018 Cedar Court Hotel, Huddersfield
The biennial conference attracted over 200 delegates and speakers and we were delighted to be approached to weave the banners to promote the event.
The conference is an opportunity to meet up with the industry professionals for varied presentations from the machinery makers and key topical speakers.
From woolens to airbags, linen to carbon fibre, industrial fabrics to apparel and from the four corners of the UK; this is the one conference and dinner where the various weaving sectors come together to talk about common issues; including Brexit this year!
Jeff Robins and Chris Catlow of S Dawes Weaving at the conference
Managing Director Stephen Shepherd (right) with Jeff Robins
The layout of the banner was created by Ben Brown of Alfred Brown Ltd. The yarn was supplied by Burberry, and then Joanna Brockbank our designer at S Dawes Weaving translated the design into weave, it was then woven at Greenhill Mill in Colne.
This was quite a challenge for our designer as there were only around 10 working days to turn this project into the finished product. We worked on the design, added our logo and decided on a construction based on the yarn counts supplied in by Burberry. The banners were then cut and sewn by Herbert Parkinson; it was a joint effort of four companies.
Oscha Slings, one of our key clients, recently did a marketing campaign on Facebook featuring some of the staff at S Dawes Weaving. The clever posts introduced the people who work to produce the fabric and the end product. Staff were shown holding up cards explaining what part they played in the process. Facebook followers commented how interesting they found it to see the faces of the people who create slings they buy. Tom Shepherd who creates the complicated warps that are required for many of the complex Oscha designs said he had hundred of likes for the image of him holding up his card!
Oscha Slings are now a major client of ours, take a look at the new page we have created to showcase the work we do together – click here, to go to our Oscha page.
June 2017 sees further investment by S Dawes Weaving. We have acquired a brand new Bonas single end jacquard machine, this new innovative Jacquard machine is one of only three in Europe.
This investment forms part of our capital investment of over 80K this year, and continues our commitment to invest in the latest technology which will enable us to maximise our productivity, design capability and efficiency. Two major new clients are working with us and are keen to develop new ranges of fabrics in the UK. With this in mind, a further Jacquard machine has been purchased and is due for delivery in September 2017, this again will expand our capability and allow us to produce more niche market high value fabrics.
New Staff
Two new members of staff have been appointed to strengthen our busy planning and design team. Our clients are looking forward to working with us on some innovative and inspiring new designs using some of the latest developments in yarn technology, including the weaving of expensive fibres such as silk, 100% cashmere, and machine washable super soft wools plus many more of the world’s finest luxury fibres. The two new jacquard machines will be invaluable in helping us to create some amazing new fabrics for the 2018/19 collections.
Emma Wood is a young and talented designer who contacted Dawes from her base in Berlin to see if we could weave her 100% Merino Lambswool designs. We were delighted to work with Emma, and now weave all her fabrics at Greenhill Mill. Her products including blankets, cushions and throws are all woven in England and made in Berlin.
Emma visited Greenhill Mill a few months ago to see her new collection of designs being woven, and to get some footage for a video she was making for her own website, click the link to view Emma’s short film. https://vimeo.com/175689309.
Image from English Fine Cottons’ new state of the art Spinning facility at Tower Mill.
S Dawes Weaving Ltd is delighted to be sourcing its cotton yarns from English Fine Cottons.
Stephen Shepherd the Managing Director at Dawes visited Tower Mill recently and was very impressed with the brand new, state of the art spinning facility in Manchester. He said, “It’s heartening to see this type of industry being invested in and brought into the modern era, but especially as it’s all being brought back to the North West where cotton spinning has been a tradition since Victorian times. Many of our customers are keen to buy British and knowing that the yarns are being processed in a British Spinning Mill is hugely exciting. Click hereto read more about the transformation of Tower Mill and this fantastic £6 million pound investment in our regions textile industry.
Our new vehicle wrap is looking good we think? It’s certainly added some colour to our boring plain white van. Thought we’d make a splash with some colourful artwork, and at the same time, get our message across that the textile industry is still alive and thriving in East Lancashire.
The team from S Dawes Weaving Ltd, again put themselves through the ‘hell’ that is Born Survivor, the 10K Cross Country Obstacle Challenge . This is no average mud run or fun day run, it’s tough, this is the ultimate military obstacle course, not for the faint hearted.
Well done to Chris, Tom, Glen, Jeff and Paulina, they all finished the course together, a bit battered and bruised, but they survived in style!by
We are now enjoying the benefits of investing in a state of the art Karl Mayer warping machine. The new machine has been installed for a couple of months and is already proving to be of huge benefit to us and our customers.
To read about this latest capital investment, please follow this link to an article published in the local press and in other Business publications.
Shown here are a few images of the new warping machine in action, showing the type of complicated warps we can now create. (One of the images shows Thomas, the son of Managing Director Stephen Shepherd, who has joined the business from his engineering background to run the new machine and learn the business.)
by 
