Me hand-stitching with two needles, linen thread and veg-tanned leather…

… and not forgetting G, helping me out here with a men’s attache design…

I’ve just had another ‘fix’ at Val and Neil’s leather workshops up the road in Tetbury.

I’ve been working on some bag designs to go into my SS08 collection and, with the factory so busy making the new Autumn collection, I’m finding it more timely to hand-make these samples myself.

And so incredibly rewarding…
Val and Neil were very kind about my stitching, which is apparently much improved since I first took up the needles (you use two simultaneously) a couple of years ago. They’ll make a master-craftswoman of me yet.

And I’ve got muscles in my hands I never knew I had… you didn’t think those popping veins were anything to do with age, did you?

Next week I’m off to Seville and Florence to review what’s in work there and make final changes.

I love this time of year!

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