Sea Aster is a woven floral from GP & J Baker's Canton collection, with the flower heads and trailing stems built into the weave of a linen-rich cloth and the viscose carrying the colour. The result is a design with relief rather than print-flat colour: the pattern lifts slightly from the ground and changes as the light moves across it. The hand is dry, with the weight of a good linen.
The composition is 76 per cent linen, 17 per cent viscose, 4 per cent spun polyester, 2 per cent cotton and 1 per cent nylon, and it runs 123 centimetres wide, which is narrow, so check your widths before ordering. The repeat is 38 centimetres vertically and 41 centimetres horizontally. GP & J Baker list it for curtains and fixed upholstery. Four colourways: Soft Red, Blue, Aqua and Ochre, each worked over a pale ground so the drawing stays legible.
We use it for curtains in a drawing room, where a woven floral gives more depth than a print, and for fixed upholstery on a small armchair or a dining chair back. It also makes a handsome cushion with a plain linen reverse. Pair it with plain linens and one of the Canton stripes. Sold by the half metre; order a sample to see it in your own light.
At 123 centimetres you will often need an extra width on a standard window, so measure first. Match the pattern at every seam and centre the design on each curtain. Woven florals can snag, so keep pins to the selvedge, ask your upholsterer to pull the cloth on the straight, and interline curtains so the weave hangs without dragging at the heading.
