ITV1 is showing a documentary tomorrow (Friday 18th July) at 8.00pm. about the making of the Waitrose picnic blanket.
They filmed the blanket being woven here at Melin Tregwynt but they also visited Schofields, our finishers in Scotland and then went to South Africa to show the finished cloth being sewn together and filmed. I’ve seen clips taken from the documentary and it looks fascinating, particularly the actual filming.
Unfortunately we never got to go to South Africa ourselves, but it will be great to see how they put it all together. Just weaving it was difficult enough, but to actually sew all the strips together, put a backing on it and then carry it up a hill and roll it down again (again and again) during filming was truly heroic. It took 40 strong men to actually lift it.
The advert was only planned to run for four weeks so if you missed it take a look here. If you want to win a smaller version Waitrose are running a competition with 30 picnic blankets to be won (see below) and click here.