Our Interview with J Boult Designs

Here is the chat we had with the brilliant JBoult Designs last month as part of their ‘Meet the Maker’ series. J Boult are a small Scottish business that make ‘handmade, shooting themed gifts from up-cycled materials including antler, fired bullets, shotgun cartridges and reclaimed wood’. We want to thank the folks at J Boult for initiating this and allowing us to share it. Please do check out their beautiful creations.

Reposted from https://www.jboultdesigns.com/blogs/news/meet-the-maker-bill-baber .

 

J Boult Designs – We make handmade up-cycled gifts in Scotland and wanted to feature some other makers and small businesses that are from Scotland too. This is our second small business to be featured in this blog series called Meet the Maker. Bill Baber is a family run handcrafted knitwear business based in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh. We sat down over zoom to have a chat with Jack Baber about the story behind Bill Baber.

How did the Bill Baber business get started?

My parents started working together over 40 years ago. My Mum, Helen, had studied and worked in textiles and knew she wanted to design her own garments. Initially my dad, Bill, helped out behind the scenes but when Mum hurt her back and couldn’t operate the machine, he had to step in. She taught him how to knit and they began designing and making knitwear together. They’ve never looked back!

 

I joined the business around 12 years ago and really enjoy designing and working with our customers so they end up with a truly unique garment. We design and make a range of women’s knitwear in Edinburgh and have recently added some children’s pieces to our range.

What’s Bill Baber’s inspiration?

We take a lot of inspiration from nature and the Scottish landscape around us. We are obsessed with colour and spend a lot of time creating colour combinations!

How do you make the products?

We are a fully fashioned, hand framed knitter. That means that we use large electric knitting machines for speed and efficiency and then assemble these pieces together as . We produce panels of knitted fabric on an electric machine. Each panel is the exact shape and size that we need it to be for the finished garment, that is where the term “fully fashioned” comes in. If we need a sleeve, we create a tapered fabric panel knitted to the exact shape and size that we require. After we have inspected each piece carefully and given it a steam press, the different panels of the garment are assembled on a linking machine.

 

 

We take one or more of the yarns used in the knitting and use it to bind the panels together on a large round machine that behaves a bit like a sewing machine. This gives us a strong invisible seam along the edges of the garment. Being a good linker takes years of training and practice, it’s about quality not speed. All of us here at Bill Baber Knitwear can link and when we are very busy, that’s what we are all doing!

 

What’s your favourite product that you make?

Bill says that his favourite is always the latest thing he’s worked on. His current favourite is our Mosaic Jacket. This is a piece we originally made in the 1980’s and we have re-imagined it and brought it back into our range! It’s made of luxurious Merino wool with a mosaic inspired pattern along the hem and sleeves.

Helen loves our Sally dresses. These are lightweight tunic length dresses made from a linen and cotton mix. They layer very well and can be dressed up with heels for a night out or down with jeans for everyday wear.

As for me, I am a big fan of our NACTA (North American Celtic Trade Association) award winning linen  capes. They are perfect for throwing on top of an outfit for some extra warmth while keeping your arms free and they’re available in over 40 colours!

What part of Scotland are you based in? And what do you love about your local area?

We are based in Edinburgh and have been for over 40 years. We love being in the heart of the city in the Grassmarket. I love that it’s full of independent unique shops and it’s lovely to be part of that community.