In honour of VE Day, I’m very pleased to announce my Home Front fabric design collection. Inspired by the wide range of 1940s propaganda prints, the designs in this collection draw on a variety of historical sources, from Jacqmar scarves to Make Do & Mend booklet illustrations.

Fashion on the Ration, shown above, is a semi-reproduction of a print originally produced by Calico Printer’s Association in 1941-42. I changed a lot of details from the original print, but retained the overall look and feel. The print is a playful look at clothes rationing, which was introduced in Britain in June 1941 - under each garment depicted is the number of coupons required to purchase that item, and the white space is filled with the number “66”, which was the number of ration coupons issued to every adult at the introduction of the scheme.

Make Do and Mend features illustrations taken from various make do and mend booklets from the WWII period. Following the introduction of clothes rationing, the Make Do and Mend campaign was launched to encourage people to make their existing supplies of clothes last longer. Posters and leaflets were circulated with advice on subjects including how to prevent and repair moth damage to woollens, how to make shoes last longer or how to care for different fabrics. As the war went on, buying new was severely restricted by coupon limits. The ability to repair, renovate and make one's own clothes became increasingly important. This small scale print is especially well suited for blouses, dresses and quilting. Available in dusty aqua, blossom pink and airforce blue colourways.

Inspired by an original 1940s print, Victory Garden features vegetable seed packets scattered on a solid coloured background. Victory gardens were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks during the First and Second World Wars. Governments encouraged private citizens to grow their own food with the slogan "Dig for Victory". As well as indirectly aiding the war effort, these gardens were also considered a civil morale booster in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens a part of daily life on the home front. This medium-large scale multi-directional print is suitable for dresses and home furnishings. Available in three colourways.

Victory Script is closely based on an original 1940s print. "V" and "Victory" lettering, often abstracted and/or accompanied by the morse code for "V", was a popular motif in the so-called Propaganda Prints of the Second World War era. Non-directional print, perfect for blouses, dresses and scarves. The original print was available in navy blue, pale blue, orange, and bright pink. My version is available in red/white, blue/white and chocolate/blossom. Should I reproduce the original colour lines?

Spitfire was one of my early fabric designs, and is consistently among my bestsellers on Spoonflower. It’s a small scale, two-way print ideal for blouses or quilting. Available in Airforce blue, light blue, and olive green.

Inspired by a Jacqmar scarf design, Victory Bouquet features flowers representing the Allied nations. Available on dusty aqua or blossom background. Medium-large scale, ideal for dresses. Please note, for historical accuracy I took the decision to include the Russian flag in this design. All commission proceeds earned from sales of this print will be donated to support Ukraine.

The graphics for Women at War were taken from a government recruiting ad from the early 40s, encouraging women to fill jobs contributing to the war effort. This is a ditsy-scale print, suitable for blouses and quilting.

Featured