The Bankie Spirit Fabric

The Bankie Spirit: A New Fabric for Clydebank (2026)
Client: Community Link Scotland × National Heritage Lottery Fund

Threads of Time is a heritage textile celebrating Clydebank’s industrial legacy, wartime resilience, and enduring sense of place. Drawing on historical themes of Industry, the Second World War Blitz, and Community, I developed a new printed fabric rooted in the town’s stories and visual history. Using a freehand drawing-with-scissors technique, I created a series of paper studies inspired by archival imagery and shared memories, which were then digitised and developed into a repeat pattern. The final textile was printed at the Centre for Advanced Textiles at The Glasgow School of Art.

As artist and designer, I combined hand-cut forms with pastel mark-making and textured rubbings taken directly from Clydebank’s industrial past, including the embossed metal plates of iconic Singer sewing machines. The design incorporates symbolic motifs such as the Singer Clock, shipbuilders, the River Clyde, Blitz imagery, and natural symbols of remembrance and renewal. Created for interiors and everyday objects, the fabric brings together bold form and layered narrative, expressing the resilience, memory, and spirit of the Bankies.

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Digital file design: Bankie Spirit Fabric

Chloe Patience

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Fireman John Stewart - WW2 Clydebank Blitz 1941

Collage using freehand cut papers marked with oil pastel

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Collage using freehand cut papers marked with oil pastel

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WW2 Clydebank Blitz Evacuees - 1941

Collage using freehand cut papers marked with oil pastel