Designer, maker and founder of textile studio Working Cloth, Lauren MacDonald shares her enthusiasm for and knowledge of quilting with approachable warmth and humour in her new book Piece By Piece, an indispensable guide to modern patchwork and quilting. We took a moment to get to know her and her sewing journey a little better below. Enjoy!

Hi Lauren, please give a brief introduction of yourself to our readers!

I’m a Canadian-born, London-based designer, researcher and author. That’s the long version: I’m mostly known for my quilts. I started making quilts at university, and started putting my projects and processes online almost ten years ago now under the moniker Working Cloth, and the rest, as they say, is history.

What led you to sewing, and how long have you been sewing for?

I started sewing when I was fourteen or fifteen, then got really into making hoodies on the overlocker that I inherited from my grandma. I made them for all my friends at high school. After that, I got hooked on making my own clothes more generally, though you could mostly categorise my “style” at that point as really short dresses with no hems. 

I then studied textiles at university. I lived in Sydney for a bit on an exchange program, loved it, and still miss it. Then, I moved to London to work in the fashion industry and sewed intermittently for myself amongst it all. 

Could you tell us the story of how Piece by Piece came about?

I have been making quilts and teaching quiltmaking for so long now, it felt like a natural progression and was something I’d been thinking about for a while. When Alice from Hardie Grant got in touch (we had known each other back when she lived in London, years ago), I was over the moon. I really love the books they make and was excited to pitch to her. I wanted to make the book that I had wished existed when I was just starting out, with references to classic craft books from the 60s and 70s. My favourite (though it dates from a little later), is the Australian Woman’s Weekly cake book. I love how it has spanned generations and how recognisable the cakes have become. In my dreams, I wanted to make something like that. 

From there, it was a team effort, working with the talented (and patient) team at Hardie Grant and with Tegan Hendel, the book’s designer, and Charlie McKay, the photographer, on how the finished object would feel. They were both so much fun to work with, and somehow translated the absolutely wacky references I sent through (books with titles like Peanut Craft and The Pantyhose Craft Book) into something that feels modern and polished. I did get to sneak in a Woman’s Weekly Easter Egg though—my husband stayed up past midnight the night before the shoot carefully crafting The Castle Cake for us to include in the Party Hat project image.

And could you tell us a little about your first book, In Pursuit of Colour?

In Pursuit of Colour is a very different beast to Piece by Piece. It’s written for a general audience, but it was much more academic in its conception, and tells the stories of all the weird and wonderful materials that people have used to dye their clothes. It brings together historic techniques, archive photography, specimens and present-day events to tell the histories of some of the world’s most important dyestuffs. There’s something for everyone in it: from industrial espionage to deep-fried mollusks.

Describe the space you use for sewing in 5 words…

Light, airy, calm, dusty, podcast-y. 

Do you have a favourite quilt? Could you tell us the story behind it and what makes it special to you?

My favourite quilts change all the time. I’m very sentimental and it’s not unheard of for me to get a bit weepy at a quilt show. At the moment, I really have a thing for signature quilts, which are quilts that are (usually) made by more than one person and where everyone who has contributed to them signs the blocks that they’ve worked on. They’re sort of collective histories and also broken narratives in that you know that everyone who made them was connected enough to join together in this project, but you don’t know what the relationships were. They bring up a lot of questions. I find them mysterious and intriguing. 

What is currently bringing a little (or a lot) of joy to your life?

It’s a cheesy answer, but after five months of grey skies you’d feel it too. Magnolia season has blossomed in London, and the pink flowers bring me a disproportionate amount of joy after an English winter.
 

What will you be teaching in the mini-workshop at the book launch in some of our stores?

This is going to be so much fun. It’s a quick guide to doing patchwork by hand, which is an easy way to start sewing and patchwork with very minimal kit. I’ll do a quick demonstration and there will be fabrics and tools on hand so that attendees can try for themselves.

Thanks, Lauren! 

Join us in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland or Wellington as we celebrate the launch of Piece by Piece. RSVP essential. Please click below to secure a spot!

RSVP for Sydney 6pm — 8pm Tuesday 1st April
RSVP for Melbourne 6pm — 8pm Wednesday 2nd April
RSVP for Auckland 6pm — 8pm Thursday 3rd April
RSVP for Wellington 3pm — 5pm Saturday 5th April