Wednesday, May 25, 2011

And So to Print..


Here is a sneak preview of photo shoot by Leanne Lim-Walker featuring Old Rectory pyjamas, which will be featured in Rock Paper Scissors Magazine - a brand new British childrenswear magazine, which celebrates Nostalgia, childhood and design/culture. The June issue will be out very shortly and we are
 delighted to have our night time range showcased in it. 

Old Rectory pyjamas - Rock Paper Scissors Magazine

Meanwhile we are eagerly waiting the arrival of our first production run of Old Rectory clothing from Portugal - any day now! We will be hotfooting it to Avoca, Pearl, Hide and Seek and many others to savour the atmosphere of selling on the high streets. Meanwhile the kids at Old Rectory are wearing the clothes. Don't forget if you'd like to visit the print studio and buy some samples come along on June 4th for tea, cakes and garden entertainment.

Farmland print top on Wolsey

.....showing elbow patches.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

New school term well on the way

Children are all back to school. As usual there was the last minute rush the night before of finding a wayward school tie, HB pencils and the frantic sewing of name tags onto aertex shirts - a cool relief from the schools' ubiquitous polycotton, yippee the Summer! Speaking of cotton, we are on the look out (talking global, not local) for a type of liberty lawn cotton for boys shirts and girls summer dresses. With the internet awash with leads and informative cotton specialists, there is a tendency to become paralysed into inertia with regards to with whom and where to begin this search. Our mother will be making a trip to India in September to visit a school near Darjeeling that she is currently involved with. It would be great to link up with a community based project in that areal that farmed and produced fair trade cotton as we really believe in supporting sustainable farming where ever possible - Mum might be encouraged to oversee some Old Rectory business during this year's trip. If makes sense to find the right Indian cotton with our family links to the country

Comfortable kids wear by Old Rectory
I'm sure I heard on the radio that April was one of warmest months since records began or something to that tune. True or not, Old Rectory kids were thrilled to be outdoors, mostly heading off on Bear Grylling garden expiditions which I have to say generally involve some homemade catapults, bows and arrows and rucksacks full of my missing kitchen utensils With the older boys in full charge they build small fire pits, set up traps and tight rope walks with the attitude and gait of men real troopers. Cooking up bacon butties is really a decoy for playing with flints and fire- I have tasted these butties and all I can say is they are smokey and warm - not hot and succulent! To 'Bear Gryll' in our house is a serious and all consuming passion for the boys. I found a party planner website called georgeandshaky.co.uk that now offer Bear Gryll style parties for kids. They are based in UK and seem to be doing very well for them selves judging by their testimonials and fun web site. In saying that we did manage to get through our party season (4 kids birthdays within 6 weeks) feeling less like we'd been steam rolled by a bus than in previous years. We kept things very simple - pass the parcel, musical statues and a treasure hunt for the younger ones. For the older ones - football, a more cryptic treasure hunt, game of flags, ninja improvisations, lots of chocolate cake and not TOO much 'free fall' for the last half hour before pick up time.

Wearing Owl print top.
The good weather was a great incentive to get out into the garden and plant out seedlings. The potatoes have come through are being continually earthed up. A large bed of carrots and marigolds was prepared. Hugo is taking a keen interest in the green house tomato plants and the new Lupin plant, chosen and planted by him.  Sweet peas are waiting for a home made tipi to climb up which I thought would be a great project to do with the older boys if i could get my hands on some willow

Clay modeling at Ballard Farm
With time away from busy school schedules the Old Rectory studio was used by some of the children who conjured up dragons and rockets - printed onto Tshirts. Do check out our special offer on printing workshops - Book a friend/family member  on with you and get 50% off cost of 2nd place. We think this is a great opportunity to learn how to screen print with your child. We still have 2 places available on our workshop on June 11th and are hoping to put up a couple of more dates over the summer.

Hugo screen printing in the studio