ABOUT US
Here at Countryside Clothing UK we make and decorate country clothes and accessories for children and adults. Embroidered and printed tops, head, neck warmers and ear warmers for riding hats, wool capes and much more.
Contact us for your own garment design to be made or decorated onto clothing.
About Me
I was brought up on my family farm on the outskirts of Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset. My grandad and granny created their own farm with our family around them. For many years I've called our farm ‘An All Creatures Great & Small Farm’ because we had most animals and birds that can typically be found on a farm. I recall my grandad rearing pheasants and running a shoot. I haven’t actively farmed or been on a shoot, but I held a gun licence for many years and shot clays.
I've grown up surrounded by country people and love seeing their personal interpretation of country style. I started sewing when I was 7, helping my mother with crafty bits and I still have a few bits that I tried to make back then. At 11, a friend gave me a Cindy doll and I started to look at making her clothes as we didn’t have the money to buy them. I learnt lots of lessons through sewing then and lots of bits have been thrown away with the attempts. I used my mother’s treadle Singer sewing machine to practice on from around 14, but just couldn’t understand a pattern so disregarded them and did my own thing!
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Age 17 I went to High School in America and this is where my passion for sewing really began and basically took over my life. In the 9 months I was there, I learnt how to use an electric sewing machine, pattern on an Overlocker / Serger machine and made my own Prom dress.
When I returned to England, I started a small 2-hour a week leisure sewing course with my mother. I then went on to pass my City & Guilds in Dressmaking and Design at Bristol’s Brunel College. I have spent 25 years making bridesmaid, evening and wedding dresses and many accessories in my spare time while working and making special occasion dresses for myself.
Since having children I have less time to sew. I started making bibs and many other baby accessories and quite liked the way they were finished quickly compared to the dresses. This led me to concentrate on country clothing and accessories. While once I got excited about silk fabrics for dresses, I now get excited about creating fashion in wool and tweed cloth as well as printing and embroidering hoodies and other clothing.
I bought my first embroidery machine 10 years ago and started making a few Christmas stockings each year but my first crafting passion was sewing so the embroidery machine sat idle for months each year. Back in 2016 I created my first tractor design and then created the tractor original design that I have adapted from today. I started making embroidered hoodies for my boys and for gifts for friend’s children. In 2018 I started thinking about turning the love for decorating hoodies into a business but with my boys still quite young I did what I could with the time I had available. Plus I spent many evenings adapting my tractor design further and getting the embroidery designs ready. My boys had my second tractor design with the bucket on hoodies for Christmas and then in the early part of 2019 I made a couple for presents again. By July, I had started looking at horse designs and had adapted a design I drew as part of my school Art course, many years ago. I still use the adapted version of this design now.
Since Christmas 2019 I have added printing to my business and am loving this too. I find my creative ability expanding all the time and with the printing there are no limits to what I can produce.
I still crave sewing and am working on building products for my shop around my embroidery and printing items. This year I have made a few cotton face masks which is not something that I would ever have imagined I would be making! I have continued to come up with new country inspired designs and getting my designs digitised. My husband and boys give me their thoughts on my designs and help out when I need help.
I look forward to bringing you more designs in the near future.
Karen x