In the late 1860s Morris began to experiment with a genre, textiles for furnishing or upholstery. His first design was jasmine trail or jasmine trellis (1868–70), based on a similar wallpaper design he had made in 1862. In the 1870s, he expanded his activity in woven furnishing textiles. In 1877, he brought a skilled French silk weaver, Jacques Bazin, from Lyon to London, rented a studio at Great Esmond Yard, and established Bazin and his mechanical Jacquard loom there to make woven wooden fabrics.

In 1881, he opened new workshops at Merton Abbey, seven miles southwest of London, for manufacturing printed and woven textiles. The workshops were next to the River Wandle, providing a source of abundant clean water, and also had a grassy meadow where dyed clothes could be dried in the open air. He produced a number of furnishing fabrics there, including the Wey and Wandle designs.
• Anemone pattern jacquard-woven silk and wool or silk damask fabric (1876)
• Acanthus design, block-printed velveteen cotton (1876)
• Peacock and Dragon design, woven wool (1878) (Art Institute of Chicago)
• Dove and Rose design jacquard-woven silk and wool doublecloth furnishing textile,(1879)
• Furnishing fabric, block-printed at Merton Abbey (1882) (Victoria and Albert Museum)

Morris made his first experiments with printed textiles for his company Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. beginning in 1868, at about the same time he was starting to make printed wallpaper (see William Morris wallpaper designs). These first textiles were recreations of earlier designs he had made from the 1830s, and were printed for Morris by the workshop of Thomas Clarkson of Bannister Hall, in Lancaster. His next textile was Trellis with jasmine (1868–70). This was printed with synthetic analine dyes. Next he made Tulip and Willow, a design he made in 1873, but he was very disappointed by the result. He blamed the problem on the artificial dyes, and began doing research into the natural dyes which had been used in the 16th century.

The Strawberry Thief became one of Morris's best-known designs. It depicted a scene from his own garden, where thrushes came to dine upon the ripe strawberries.
• Tulip and willow design (Designed 1873)
• African marigold design (1876)
• Tulip design on roller-printed cotton (Cleveland Art Museum) (1875)
• Honeysuckle design (1876)
• Snakeshead design (1877) (Cleveland Art Museum)
• Strawberry Thief design (1883) (Victoria and Albert Museum)
• Indigo design printed textile (1883)
• Wandle design printed fabric (1884)
• Willow bough (1887), [adapted from a wallpaper design)
Morris moved with his family to Turham Green in 1872, which created greater space in his house at Queen Square in London where Morris had his workshop. Morris and his assistant John Smith made a series of experiments with indigo and other natural dyes, but were unable to attain colours that satisfied Morris. In 1875, Morris tried working with a commercial printer, Wardle and Company, using wood blocks with a reduced number of colours and modern chemical dyes, This time he was dissatisfied with the lack of quality control by the workers, and the uneven results. He therefore decided to establish his own workshop, where he could control everything.

He moved his printing workshop to Merton Abbey Mills, near the Merton Abbey Priory. For printed textiles, the design was traced onto a block of pear wood, and then the wood was sculpted so only the desired surface would touch the fabric. Thin strips of brass were pounded edge-first into the block to make the fine lines. One block was used for each colour of the final fabric, T…

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Morris wrote that making tapestries was 'the noblest of all the weaving arts', and most suitable for his interest in reviving medieval arts and crafts. He set up his first tapestry loom in 1877, and made completed his first tapestry, was 'Acanthus and Vine' in (1879). He wove the tapestry himself, often getting up at dawn to work on a loom in his bedroom at Kelmscott House. His design was modelled after the "large leaf" tapestries woven in France and Flanders in the 16th century, and he deliberately gave them a faded appearance to make them look two centuries old. He recorded that it took him five hundred sixteen and one half hours to complete.

Once he had mastered the technique, he created a full-time tapestry workshop at the Morris and Company house on Queen Square. For most of his tapestries, Morris worked with other artists, particularly Edward Burne-Jones, who designed the figures, Philip Webb, who designed birds and animals, and with his primary assistant and successor as chief designer, John Henry Dearle. Burne-Jones made a drawing of the figures first, which was transformed into a color design by Morris or Dearle. A photographic image was made of he design with figures, to which Morris or Dearle added a floral background, and a border equally filled with designs of trees and flowers. The full scale image was transferred onto cloth by rubbing with a piece of ivory, and then woven on a loom. Large-scale tapestries were made in this way at Merton, mostly by the employment of boys ages thirteen and fourteen, who received shelter, board and a daily wage.

The most famous tapestries made by Burne-Jones and Morris were Holy Grail tapestries made for William Knox D'Arcy in 1890 for his dining room at Stanmore Hall Additional versions of the tapestries with minor variations were woven on commission by Morris & Co. over the next decade.

In addition to full-scale tapestries, the Merton Abbey workshop produced smaller works, designed as coverings for cushions and furniture. Multiple copies were made of some popular tapestries. Ten copies were made of The Adoration between 1890 and 1907.
• Woodpecker tapestry detail (1885)
• Cartoon of the Adoration of the Magi with figures by Edward Burne-Jones on photographic paper
• Completed Adoration of the Magi, figures by Edward Burne-Jones, decoration by Morris and J.H. Dearle (1890–97)(Musée d'Orsay)
• Holy Grail tapestries (1890s). Figures by Edward Burne-Jones, overall conception by Morris, floral designs by J.H. Dearle. Wool and silk on cotton warp. (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery)

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