Hello, welcome to the Making of Batch No.17. This page will be updated each week until we deliver your jacket.

Week beg. 29th April 2024 - Midnight Blue In the Factory

This week's factory updates share Midnight Blue Barn jackets at every stage of the production line, grab a cuppa and enjoy!.

Week beg. 22nd April 2024 - Olive Green In the Factory

This week's factory updates share Olive Green Barn jackets at every stage of the production line, as well as final quality checks on Blackwatch Tartan and the early progress on Midnight Blue.

Week beg. 8th April 2024 - Blackwatch Tartan Progress

As we near shipping our Paynter Red Barn Jackets, the Blackwatch Tartan jackets are showing serious progress, watch this week's factory updates to see the latest.

Week beg. 1st April 2024 - Sewing, Prepping & More Cutting

Our highly skilled team of makers have enjoyed a short Easter break and now the buzz is back. Click play to see Blackwatch Tartan jackets being sewn, Archive Olive being prepared and Midnight Blue being cut.

Week beg. 25th March 2024 - Next up: Archive Olive & Blackwatch Tartan

It's all go in Northern Portugal and this week's update is the first time you'll see some Barn Coats as they're nearing the finish line. Our factory are working colour by colour, starting with Paynter Red, followed by Blackwatch Tartan, Archive Olive and finally the beautiful Midnight Blue. Press play below to watch their progress, and check your latest email for our expected shipping times.

Week beg. 18th March 2024 - Preparations are well underway

A lot has been happening since you placed your Barn jacket order. Press play on the video below to see cutting, applying the fusing to strengthen key points in the fabric and marking out where the undercollar zig-zag stitching and pockets will be placed. Keep watching and you'll see there's already a lot of progress in the early preparation stages, such as pressing the pockets, applying snap buttons and limited edition labels being sewn in too.

Week beg. 11th March 2024 - Cutting Paynter Red & Blackwatch Barn Jackets

Watch this week's update to see exactly what's been happening in the factory as cutting the Paynter Red & Blackwatch Tartan jackets is in progress

Week beg. 11th March 2024 - Preparing to cut

Shortly after we finalised everybody's choice of size for the Batch No.17 Barn jacket, we placed the order with Mario at our factory. He got straight to work, laying out every pattern piece to make the best use of our fabric, with minimum offcuts and wastage. The plan is worked out on software that is then connected to the cutting machine, which you'll see in action in next week's video update. The first colour to be cut was Paynter Red and now Blackwatch Tartan is being cut. Next up will be Archive Olive and Midnight Blue.

Until then, we wanted to show you a very unique part of the process for the Blackwatch Tartan jackets.

When manufacturing with a patterned fabric such as this Tartan, you have a major decision to make very early on in the design process: Do you want to match up the checkered pattern, so the effect is neat and consistent across every jacket, or do you decide not to match the pattern, and go for a more random, patchworked effect?

We decided to go for the first option, to do justice to a beautiful tartan, perfectly matching up the check. You probably guessed it, but we chose the longer, harder route, in favour of making something we'll be very proud of once the work is done.

Aligning the pattern means a much slower process is required at this cutting stage, as every layer of fabric needs to be laid out on the cutting table by hand, not machine. We use thin spikes to hold down each layer of fabric in just the right place, meaning every front, pocket and arm looks just the same. The spikes are carefully placed so they only pierce the fabric in areas that won't be used for the jackets themselves (aka the offcuts). In the short video below you can watch the careful preparation of our Blackwatch Tartan fabric before it is cut:

The Limited Edition Label Inside

Inside your Batch No.17 Barn jacket will be a limited edition woven label hiding inside. 

With timelessness and longevity in mind, we've never been big fans of having loud designs or big logos on the outside of our jackets, but we do think there's room for having fun on the inside, with details that are just for you to enjoy.

That's why inside every jacket we've ever made is a limited edition label, designed by a new artist each time.

Over the last five years, we've worked with typeface designers, animators, linocut artists, painters and illustrators. Every artist who's designed a label has worked with the same constrains each time: 

1, The label must be 3" x 3" (the same size as a post-it-note). We decided the post-it was the perfect canvas size after writing our first business plan on one, during the very early days.

2, The label should use just two colours. Red and white.

3, It must include the Batch number, date of release and our logo.

4, Lastly, it must include a frame, but that can be broken or worked into, if the artist would like.

Simple, but not easy. 

Over the years we've loved seeing how artists have taken the tiny canvas in so many different directions.

The pull of the paper vs the screen.

As Luis said "reading the paper can seem a rebellious activity these days".Hopefully the little red label sewn inside Batch No.17 will be a gentle reminder to stay informed and stay creative.

And so with the design finalised, we sent the file to our label makers in Portugal who made a woven sample for approval, ahead of making all of our labels for Batch No.17.

Your Waxed Cotton fabric being made

Yesterday, on the 6th February 2024 we travelled up from London to Dundee in Scotland to see your waxed cotton fabric in progress at the mill - Halley Stevensons.

Their fabric mill has been operating from the same site since 1864 and for the past 160 years they have been specialising in waxed cotton and weatherproof fabrics.

The video below takes you inside their listed building where everything takes place. As you watch you'll notice lots of different processes happening. The fabric that they are making for you goes through the following processes: creating the colours in the lab, testing, dyeing, drying, singeing, waxing and finishing.

Press play on the video above to watch more, or scroll on to see some photos from our trip yesterday when we were lucky to see the Blackwatch Tartan and Paynter Red fabrics in the drying stages. After drying comes the waxing stage, where the fabrics will get a touch darker in colour. 

Our visit to Halley Stevensons, February 2024.

A Big Note of Thanks

Welcome to the behind the scenes of Batch No.17.

Thank you so much for your order, we are very proud to be making for you.

Over the next few months we're going to show you what goes into making your jacket, from beginning to end. As well as some little extras. We'll aim to update this page every Friday, to show you what's been happening each week along the way until it's ready to send around the end of April / beginning of May.

If there's anything you'd like to see more of along the way, please just ask, and we'll see what we can do.