Yes, more Aussies.

At this point, I am pricing a move to Australia because it’s obvious they get all the good fabric and it’s just more efficient if I live closer to it.  If you’re reading this and you’re a fabric designer in the U.S. who prints on organic cotton or hemp or something else eco-friendly, would you please let me know about yourself ASAP?  I really don’t want to collect enough cardboard boxes to pack even just the baby’s stuff, and you could save me a lot of trouble.

Umbrella Prints Fabric is on organic hemp, which I think means they get the goldest gold star.  They sell the FanFlower fabric and the Elephants fabric by the yard, each in three colorways called Starfruit, Sumi black, and Kimono red.

If you want something a little more mixed, they sell patch sets which have a subset of the full 12 fabrics they produced this season.  Order four sets to get all of the fabrics in all of the colorways, which is 48 different fabrics.

I would tell you how much it is in U.S .dollars, but since I’m moving to Australia, I need to start thinking in their currency.  So it’s $36 for a patch set.

Image from the Umbrella Prints website.

This one had an extra day to percolate while I was on my way home from Colorado, the state where my environmental consciousness was born when I was in high school.

And though that means the Carnival is a day late, is by no means a dollar short.  So sit back and enjoy this collection of green and crafty goodness.

Before we begin, a few administrative notes: The eighth Carnival will be hosted at Things We Make, which is part of the Hallmark Magazine website! Send in your posts via the carnival submission form. The Carnival of Green Crafts home page has background info.

Now on to the carnival!

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All organic fibers used by Plover are certified according to the standards of the Organic Trade Association (OTA) in the United States, and by those of IFOAM and SKAL internationally.

Plover’s method of dyeing conforms fully to the American Organic Fiber Processing Standards (AOFPS) recognized by the OTA, as well as the Oeko-Tex 100 Standard and that of the Environmental Technology Advancement Directorate (ETAD) recognized in Europe.

Plover Organic’s linens are certified by Oeko-Tex and by GOTS.

Though no certification is mentioned for fair trade, they also support and say they practice fair trade principles.

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Details here, or submit a post through the submission form.

Previous editions of the Carnival of Green Crafts:

• First Carnival of Green Crafts
• Second Carnival of Green Crafts at BlogHer
• Third Carnival of Green Crafts: Trash Into Treasure
• Fourth Carnival for Green Crafts at Whip Up
• Fifth Carnival of Green Crafts
• Sixth Carnival of Green Crafts at Smidge

So I’ve been doing the Fabulous Fabrics series for a while, and I’ve been noticing something.

HarmonyArt Organic Design, Amenity, Oliveira Textiles, Mod Green Pod, Rubie Green, Kirin & Co, Thea and Sami - all of the designers behind these wonderful fabrics are women. (Right?  Someone correct me if I’m wrong.)

Michael Miller Organics stands out as the lone male name with an organic fabric line.

Can someone educate me a little here?  Is it typical that most mainstream fabric is designed by women?  I don’t know enough about the industry, honestly. I know that in quilting, men like Kaffe Fassett, Michael James, and Ricky Tims stand out not just because they’re good at what they do, but because they’re guys in an industry dominated by women. (Side note: am I the only person who really, really wants to pronouce Kaffe Fassett’s name as “coffee faucet?”) 

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They offer two items that really caught my attention, though, because I hadn’t seen them anywhere else: organic cotton gauze, and organic cotton / nettle blend fabric.

The first is organic cotton gauze, a.k.a. netting.  They say that it’s great for gardening, with an almost throwaway comment that it’s “great as a craft material or dressing up prop!” Indeed, I’ve always associated gauze with doctoring more than with sewing, but since they’re selling it in the fabric section instead of bath and body, I thought I’d figure out what crafters could use it for.

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If you haven’t yet submitted something to the carnival, please send in a post for our next edition! We’d love to get your thoughts about green crafting, upcycling, thrifting and crafting, and more.

Want to host a carnival?  Let us know!  Details about submitting and hosting are on the Carnival of Green Crafts home page.

New to the Carnival of Green Crafts or blog carnivals in general?  Missed previous carnivals?  Here’s the 411:

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Living here in Austin, I can attest that under the right conditions, bamboo doesn’t need the care (read: water) that even organic cotton does in order to thrive.  There are yards all over the city where bamboo planted as a privacy screen has busted out all over.  It’s like kudzu, only taller.

So the idea of using bamboo for fabric is extremely appealing.  Plant it, ignore it, harvest it, fabricize it. It’s that last part that’s a problem.  How exactly is thick, reedy bamboo turned into soft, fuzzy fabric anyway?

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Details here, or submit a post through the submission form.

Previous editions of the Carnival of Green Crafts:

• First Carnival of Green Crafts
• Second Carnival of Green Crafts at BlogHer
• Third Carnival of Green Crafts: Trash Into Treasure
• Fourth Carnival for Green Crafts at Whip Up
• Fifth Carnival of Green Crafts

My friends, this is no lie!  The good people at Bedrock have tumbled glass for all kinds of crafty and gardeny adventures.

I love the colors available in their mosaic glass, and mosaic is a craft I’ve always wanted to try.  Their glass is 100% pre-consumer recycled glass, taken from the waste generated during the production of stained glass.

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Some of the fabrics are as low as $7.25 per yard, some as high as $20, and as I’ve come to expect with hemp, I’m seeing mostly solid colors.  HempTraders has a wider variety of fabrics all in one place than some of the other online shops I’ve covered, and the photographs of the fabrics are exceedingly clear.

“But what’s a specialty weave?” I thought, and clicked on that link.

Now I am obsessed with the idea of sewing up little boy pajamas.

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Welcome to the fifth Carnival of Green Crafts!

Another carnival, another bunch of craft-a-licious green goodness.  A bunch of, um, somewhat disturbing craftiness.  Glue sniffing.  Hitting things with sticks.  Metal saws.

What the heck are you people up to out there?

Before we begin, a few administrative notes: The sixth Carnival will head to Canada on October 2nd to be hosted at Smidge! Send in your posts via the carnival submission form today! The Carnival of Green Crafts home page has background info.  And if you missed it, the fourth carnival was at Whip Up and others are linked at the end of this post.

Now on to the carnival!

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In the crafts section, the winner is 350 Save Mother Earth by PEACEANDALLTHATJAZZ. In the t-shirt design section, the winner is Equilibrium 350 by artoo1121.  See the winners here, and congratulations to both of them!

As Kelly told us back in June, the Creativity 350 partnership and contest was launched to draw creative energy and attention to 350.org’s goal of reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million to stave off dangerous climate change. Entries were accepted until August 31st, and then a voting process took place to determine the winners.

Reading recent posts in Craftster’s forum on Creativity350, I was not surprised to see that not all crafters believe in the science behind global warming.

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Pippijoe is another great source for limited edition, hand screen printed fabrics.  They print on both a 55% hemp / 45% cotton blend and a 100% hemp fabric using environmentally friendly inks. The fabrics are described as “soft to touch and feel like linen” and perfect for “crafts, bags, clothing, soft furnishings and light upholstery” and a heavier base weight fabric is available for projects that need something sturdier.

Pippijoe’s Etsy Shop offers mix packs and a couple of the fabrics, or you can buy fabrics by the metre on the main Pippijoe site.  Different fabrics have different prices, from about $16 to $35 per yard in U.S. dollars for 30″ wide fabric.

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Details here, or submit a post through the submission form.

Previous editions of the Carnival of Green Crafts:

• First Carnival of Green Crafts
• Second Carnival of Green Crafts at BlogHer
• Third Carnival of Green Crafts: Trash Into Treasure
• Fourth Carnival for Green Crafts at Whip Up

GreenSage

Several times I’ve thought about whether to include a fabric this expensive in the Fabulous Fabrics series?  Is it just to taunt you?  No!  You’re all very nice, and I like you.  I’m also not trying to reinforce the perception that all organic fabric is expensive.  The fact is, fine fabrics and upholstery fabrics are expensive no matter what they’re made of, and we all understand that.

What I am trying to do is celebrate the organic, sustainable, and environmentally friendly fabrics that people are creating, even if most of us aren’t able to consume vast quantities of it.  I think it’s part of building and nurturing a movement to point out successes and hold up even high end examples of what we want products to be like.

And I like to show you pretty things.  You’re o.k. with that, right?

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I love seeing the submissions as they come in, especially when one post introduces me to a whole new blog I’ve never read before.  If you haven’t yet submitted something to the carnival, please do!  Even if you don’t have a full-fledged article or tutorial to share, or if all of your projects right now are UFOs (unfinished objects), we’d still love to get your “take” on this whole green crafting thing.  So here are a few ideas to get you started:

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I started writing the Fabulous Fabrics series here in March, and I thought the six month mark would be a good time for a retrospective.

What I’ve liked best about doing this series is seeing the combination of creativity and passion that goes into what these fabric designers and manufacturers do.  If someone’s making organic fabric, it’s because they believe in it.  It’s not just because a market analysis told them they would make some money.  (In fact, I sometimes worry if they’re even making enough to live on, given the extra work they’re doing to source and use eco-friendly materials and fair trade practices.)  These folks really want to make a difference.

So here are the fabrics and shops I’ve covered so far in the Fabulous Fabrics series here on Crafting A Green World.  At one point I was afraid I would run out, but more and more come to my attention all the time.  So here’s the past, and I’ll see you next Tuesday to start in on the next six months!

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…unless you’re a parent that hates looking at tools, trucks, sports logos, and cowboy gear, in which case you’re up a creek.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for all of the hand-me-downs we’ve received since our son was born last fall.  Passing clothing down from kid to kid is an American tradition that’s thrifty and environmentally responsible at the same time.  I’ve also had a great time going through resale shops and thrift stores and I’ve found some good stuff.  Blue jean shorts for $1?  Sold!

However,  since kiddo isn’t old enough to care about his own clothes yet, we are actually the primary viewers of his wardrobe and we are starting to get a bit tired of all the “All Boy All The Time” look - and it is darn difficult to find anything else unless you buy new.  I know it isn’t any easier on the other side. Announcing “it’s a girl!” seems to trigger a pink clothing avalanche.  (Also see Amy’s post on GirlMogul for some alternatives.)

So if you’re on the hunt for something to break the mold and liven up your babe’s couture, here’s a list of 20 eco-friendly shirts that don’t scream boy or girl (or cowboy).  Use the money you saved on the jean shorts to splurge a little, or drop a few hints to the grandparents.

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Welcome to the Third Carnival of Green Crafts!

Before we begin, let me just thank all of the crafters who participated in this month’s carnival for taking a weight off my mind. After reading all of these posts, I now have NO worries at all about landfill space anywhere in America. Seriously, y’all, crafters are obviously the solution to the trash problem. Go us!

Before we begin, a few administrative notes: We’re pleased as punch to announce that the fourth Carnival will be September 4th at Whip Up. Send in your posts via the carnival submission form today! For background information about the Carnival, please see the Carnival of Green Crafts home page. And in case you missed the previous editions, here are the first Carnival, here at Crafting A Green World, and the second Carnival, at BlogHer.

Thanks so much to all the crafters who shared their posts with us for this edition of the Carnival. Let’s dig in!

Eco-Friendly Materials

Tiny Decor gathered a list of the Top 10 Modern and Eco-friendly Fabric Sources on Etsy. You HAVE to see what she’s collected, there are some real knockouts.

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