The English Sewing Cotton Company Scrapbook

 I obtained a copy of Needlework Magazine, dating from 1958. On the back cover - this splendid advertisement:  Judging by the wording -"be sure it is genuine" and "accept no other" - there had been a bit of trouble with copycat cotton. I wonder if it is a reference to those Sylvia reels you see knocking about. So let's have a flick through the rest of the magazine - what were we using our Sylkos for in the same year that saw the introduction of motorways, parking meters and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament? Here's some of the projects. 1. A picnic cushion bag embroidered with daisies. Something to both carry your magazine and sit upon after your first trip up the motorway. You'd probably want it in green to hide the grass stains so I'm guessing D107 Light Emerald. 2. A three piece towelling beach set - skirt, stole and bag. It's a black and white photo and doesn't suggest colours, but I can see it in a darker yellow. I'm going D21 Gol...

 SO NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW YOU MADE IT YOURSELF. This was a slogan for a 1974 advertising campaign for Trylko. A sad indictment of the way that things were heading for English Sewing - or Tootal by then - in the 1970s. In the early days of Sylko, home made clothes were a matter of fact and a matter of pride. All but the very rich made their own clothes and to have the skill to make something that looked fashionable or stylish was something to show off. But by the time that fast fashion was sweeping the High Street, to make your own clothes was just so square. You wanted to get yourself down to Biba and be groovy, not slave over a Singer. This was an early part of the marketing ramp-up of the closing years of Sylko and Trylko. The above slogan focussed on the quality of the threads - but this isn't enough when people are starting to not want the goods at all. A couple of years later there was a push to get younger people interested in the products with a film and information folders ...

Extracts from the book 'Skipton 2000 The Millennium Walk' compiled by Ian Lockwood. Published by The Skipton Millennium Task Force in 1999. These are the pieces pertinent to research into Dewhursts. P61: For more than a century textiles were Skipton 's major employer but when cheaper foreign imports came to flood the market it's decline was rapid. It took barely 20 years, from the 1960s to the 1980s for textiles to go from chief employer to virtually non-existant. Dewhurst's Mill still dominates the town but it's textile days are now long gone. As late as the 1970s Dewhurst's famous "Sew it With Sylko" slogan was a familiar sight in households and wooden bobbins with cotton thread in all sorts of colours were a feature of households across the land. The slogan was written in huge letters across a walkway above Broughton Road which connected the mill with its store sheds on the opposite side of the road. The mill was opened by a cotton spinner opera...

 As the 1960s progressed,  the development of synthetic threads became an important part of the English Sewing Ltd business. In 1966, the following synthetic brands were listed as products of the thread division: Polyfil, Trylko, Terral, Delta, Star By 1972, synthetic threads accounted for 50% of the company's industrial sales. Polyfil thread was processed at the Belper mill: "The first industrial thread to be produced by spinning cotton round a synthetic core to produce strength and sewability." In 1972, the Trylko product was renewed using more up to date production methods. Terylene fibre was spun into yarn at the Pendlebury mill. The fibre was then taken to Neilston to be twisted and wound. Finally, it was dyed, finished and spooled at Skipton. Star was a spun polyester thread that was stronger than Trylko but as fine as Sylko 50.  In 1982, Sylko Supreme was introduced.  This was a cotton covered polyester thread with a mercerised finish. https://www.etsy.com/uk/...