Skye Kilaen began sewing at an early age and eco-rabble-rousing shortly after that. Many years later, someone finally told her that there are books about how to make quilts. Life was never the same. In fact, she spent more on her sewing machine than her car. Bringing her green and crafty passions back together, Skye is now happily discovering ways to create beautiful and useful objects using thrifted and sustainable materials. No, that's not just an excuse to visit Goodwill more often. Honest.
Autumn recently posted The Eco-Crafters List of Demands, asking green crafters what they would like to see stocked in the craft store of their dreams. Katherine Cota of Spindle Bell had quite a few suggestions:
My ideal craft shop would have EVERYTHING! I love it all. I would especially love a great supply of pretty recycled papers and unique recycled beads. Non-toxic glues/adhesives, glass etching solution, paints. Unique synthetic yarns AND more
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One of my favorite exhibits at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is the Japanese Arms and Armor collection… because it’s where they also keep several kimono. So beautiful. So priceless. So likely to get me in trouble if I touch them.
Lucky for me, vintage kimono fabric is available elsewhere without the bother of glass cases and security guards. I found out about online shop Ah! Kimono when I came across Maitreya’s cute flower pin on Craftlog. Ah! Kimono imports used and vintage kimono from Japan and resells the fabric.
Owner Cheri Bridges describes the founding of Ah! Kimono as follows:
In the ’80’s and ’90’s a person could buy 200 lb. bales of used kimono. The very idea of that seemed so amazing, but what would I do with that many kimono I wondered. I really just wanted a few of them to line some hand woven garments. In 1991, I was taking a garment class with a wonderful group of adventurous women. We decided to split a bale of kimono so that we could learn more about the textiles.
In Kelly’s recent post Tools To Use: Batting, she outlined several organic and sustainable choices for quilt batting - including my favorite, Hobbs Heirloom Organic Cotton Batting. Kelly was curious, though, about re-using old blankets or sheets instead.
Being creative with your quilt ingredients is part of the history of quilting. Now granted, many of the choices that early quilters made were due to economic constraints. I suspect that if the pioneers had sewing machines and fabric shops readily and affordably available, a lot of them would have taken advantage of those options. However, quilting does have a historical ethic of conservation and re-use. Quilters today manifest this ethic through the obsessive saving of fabric scraps too small for any reasonable project, “just in case.”
So if you’re willing to look past batting, there are other earth-friendly alternatives for your quilt’s insides. Your linen closet, thrift stores, or donations from other people’s sewing supplies may provide just what you need.
Michael Miller Fabrics is co-sponsoring a Baby Bootie contest with Craft Magazine. I would love to see a green crafter win this with organic or recycled materials.
I do suspect there’s some kind of craft hive mind episode going on here, because I’ve planned to write about their organic fabric line this week - and just last week, Autumn posted here at Crafting A Green World about recycled handmade shoes. I fully intend to investigate this set of coincidences, but first let’s talk about Michael Miller Organics.
Michael Miller Fabrics launched its organic line at the beginning of the year. The sneak peek on their blog last fall included a shot of the supercute booties shown here. That blog post gave a snapshot of some of the challenges facing folks who want to bring organic cotton to market:
Did you know that organic cotton has to be grown for at least three years without chemical pesticides, defoliants, or fertilizers? It costs more because organic farms are more labor and management intensive. They’re also usually smaller and do not receive federal subsidies like conventional farming.
Admit it. You collect crafting books. It’s all right, we’re your friends. We won’t judge you.
Or maybe I should speak just for myself. My name is Skye, and I collect craft books. My collection is very small when compared to some people’s (hello Jessica, are you reading this?), but it contains books for quilting projects that I likely will never undertake. Celtic knot applique using bias strips, crazy landscape piecing techniques, etc. It’s like I have a fantasy craft life that is totally divorced from my real craft life, which is mostly concerned with making baby quilts for other people’s children.
Now I’m branching out into non-quilting books as well. One of the books that is about to add itself to my collection - note the use of passive voice to imply that it’s not my fault - is the eco-fabulous Second Time Cool: The Art of Chopping Up a Sweater by by Anna-Stina Linden Ivarsson, Katarina Brieditis, and Katarina Evans.
I know that getting books from the library is the greener option, but at some point the Austin Public Library is going to get sick of me having their book out all the time and want a few words with me.
Welcome to Earth Day, crafters! Today, in honor of our one and only home, I’m taking a break from the Fabulous Fabrics series to address a serious dilemma.
If you’re like me, you have a decent sized fabric stash sitting around. In my case, it’s quilting cotton. Yards and yards and yards of it. If you’re like me, you also spend a lot of time thinking about how you can help avert ecological crisis. When the two collide, it can produce guilt about consumption of that much cotton - which uses a ton of water to produce - as well as dyes to make it pretty.
Don’t fret! While cotton is a thirsty crop, your stash can start to make up for its ecological footprint while it awaits that perfect project. Scientists here at Crafting A Green World Laboratories have been working diligently to evaluate all the possibilities and develop this list of the Top 5 ways your fabric stash can help save the earth. (We believe these tips are also applicable to other stash materials, such as yarn and possibly ribbon, but our research is still ongoing into these supplies.)
Several years ago, I was working on a baby quilt from a book of designs inspired by Amish quilts. The pattern I was using included an applique border which I was going to skip because my hand stitches look awful. I was intrigued by a note that the author had included, though, about how traditional Amish quilts rarely include applique. The technique of applique was believed to be wasteful of fabric.
It turns out that wise use of resources is a hallmark of Amish quilts even beyond avoidance of applique. The Quilter’s Ultimate Visual Guide has this to say about Amish quilts:
Most quilts contain bits of fabric left over after dresses and shirts have been made for the family […] Mitered borders are rarely used, since they require more fabric. In keeping true to their faith, the quilts the Amish make are simple in design and fulfill a utilitarian need of providing warmth.
In Kelly’s post on earth friendly stuffing yesterday, she mentioned online shop Near Sea Naturals. You may have seen their name pop up before in my profile of Mod Green Pod.
So I thought it was high time to give this online eco-shop their own day in the sun in our Fabulous Fabrics series. Their collection of cotton, wool, and hemp fabrics, yarns and knitting needles, and notions is sure to warm the heart of any green crafter. Since there’s so much to see on their site, I thought I’d take a moment and highlight a couple of the new fabrics they just added.
The White Sands Safari Interlock, pictured above, is 100% cotton and whitened with peroxide instead of chlorine bleach.
A couple of months ago, I bought a super-cute twin size sheet at Goodwill. Originally from Target, and probably sold in a package very much like the one pictured here, my sheet has spirograph-esque designs in mauve, persimmon, and lime on a white background. It was $5 with its matching pillowcase. I thought that was a bit high, but I had fallen in love with it, so it came home with me.
Problem #1: Nothing in my house is mauve, persimmon, or lime.
Problem #2: I don’t have a twin size bed.
So what do I do with this sheet?
Granted, sheets are just really big pieces of fabric, so there are plenty of options. But this sheet is so cute, I want to use it for something special.
Please don’t make the hemp jokes. Please. I live in Austin, Texas, which is full of hemp enthusiasts of all types, so I promise that I have heard them all. And truth be told, I didn’t think I would be that impressed by a web page full of hemp fabric.
Yes, I was one of those ignoramuses who envisioned only scratchy off-white canvas when I thought of hemp fabric. Victoria has profiled hemp yarns from Lanaknits, Autumn has opened my eyes to the beauty of macrame, and I even profiled a fabric that’s a blend of cotton and hemp. But 100% hemp? I clung to my preconceptions.
The hemp linen and twill at Earth Friendly Goods has won me over, though. How?It’s in multiple colors.
