SARAHK offers the finest hand embroidered bed and table linens, while at the same time helping to sustain the West Bengali village women, whose skills passed down through generations make these beautiful designs possible.

While living in India between 2008-2010, Sarah met Raju and his father, who had travelled by train from Calcutta to Mumbai to sell their bed and table linen to Indian and foreign women living in the city. Their family business is based solely on word-of-mouth, and just as their grandfather had travelled throughout India and as far as Burma selling his hand embroidered nightwear to women during the early 1900's, the business has evolved and the family do the same today with their bed and table linen.

Each item is made by hand from start to finish....

Once the cotton has been bought at the market, it is taken back to the village, where it is measured and cut. Next, the motifs are stenciled onto the cotton. The stencil designs consist of tiny pin pricks all along the drawing lines, and a light wash of water-based paint is wiped over the tracing paper, allowing just enough to filter through the pin pricks onto the cotton underneath.

If a hemstitch border is required, the cotton is then given to one of the local women, and the hemstitch is done by hand after the design has been applied, but before the embroidery begins. The cotton and threads are then given to the village women to embroider by hand, carefully following the motifs. The women work from their own homes, sometimes meeting together to socialise at the same time, and often with their children in tow! This cottage industry plays an important role in the rural economy.

Once the embroidery work has been finished, the completed pieces are collected and washed, before being packed up and sent to the UK. On arrival in the UK they are then professionally laundered and pressed.

The bedlinen is made with a superior quality 200 thread count cotton and is fantastically soft next to the skin.