In September 2009 Coats Crafts sponsored Amii Briggs’ end of year show. Now, after graduating with a BA in Textiles and Surface Design at Cleveland College of Art and Design, Hartlepool, Amii is well on her way to setting up her own business.

Amii’s final degree show was a major part of her studies and was her chance to showcase her abilities at the end of her course. “I decided to ask Coats Crafts for sponsorship as it is a well established company supplying a fantastic range of embroidery threads. As my strength was hand embroidery, I was extremely pleased to be sponsored by them,” explains Amy. “Coats Crafts kindly send me a huge bag of different threads and wools, all of which were a huge help in creating the pieces for my final major project. This helped me out greatly with the overall costs of making my designs and for this I am very grateful.”

Amii also felt inspired by some of our products too. “I absolutely loved all of the metallic and sparkly threads Coats Crafts sent me as part of my sponsorship. They added an element of luxury and looked lovely sewn on my designs,” says Amii.

Now she has graduated, Amii is in the process of setting up her own business selling handmade fashion accessories, home wares and gifts. “I’ve been really busy designing and making products to sell when my business is set up. Part of the Coats products I was sent included Wash+Filz-It! wool. I found this knit up lovely and was perfect for the items I have been making, so I have just ordered some more in various colours!”

You can see some of Amii’s original graduate work here. The Circles Neckpiece is detachable from the dress and is made from pieces of fabric which have been transfer dyed several times. Once all the circles were in position, she machined with contrasting coloured threads to apply random stitching. The piece was finished with crystals around the neckline for added glamour with a ribbon fastening at the back.

The purple and pink dress designs are made from hand dyed and digitally printed fabric. Both are finished with an abundance of different hand embroidery stitches. The butterflies were hand printed and cut from separate fabric, and applied using a running stitch down the middle. “I didn’t stitch down the wings – I wanted the butterflies to appear to be flying,” explains Amii.

If you’d like to read more about Amii and see more of her designs, she has a Facebook site (Amii Briggs Textile Designer) where you can see more of her work. Look out for Amii Briggs’ blog and her new website coming soon…