Bowhill is a woven design on a linen-rich ground, with the motif worked in a soft viscose yarn that sits slightly proud of the base cloth. It has the look of a document pattern redrawn at a domestic scale: ordered, but not stiff. Because the pattern is in the weave, it shifts with the light through the day, which a printed cloth never quite does.
Sixty-seven per cent linen, 28 per cent viscose and 5 per cent polyester, 132 centimetres wide, repeating 39 centimetres vertically and 33 centimetres horizontally. GP & J Baker list it for curtains and bedspreads rather than seating, so treat it as a decorative cloth. Four colourways: Parchment, Blush, Blue and Aqua. Parchment is the quiet neutral, Blush is warmer than it looks on a small cutting, and Blue and Aqua both hold up well against white joinery.
We use it for curtains and for a bedspread or a bed valance, and it makes an elegant cushion or a lampshade. In a bedroom we would run it at the window and keep the headboard in a plain linen. Pair it with the Canton stripes and a plain, and resist a second figured cloth in the same room. It also takes a hand-pleated heading well. Sold by the half metre; order a sample to see it in your own light.
Allow a full repeat per drop and match the joins, because at 33 centimetres across an unmatched seam shows. Interline the curtains: the viscose drapes well but the cloth benefits from weight behind it. For a bedspread, plan the widths so the centre panel is whole and the joins fall at the edges of the mattress rather than across the top.
