Green Options » Fab Fabrics

Fab Fabrics: Organic Prints from Baby Bird Design

Becky Striepe — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:00:32 +0000

How sweet are these organic cotton prints from Baby Bird Design? I ran across Emily’s shop over the weekend, and I’ve got to say: I’m swooning from cuteness!

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Indian Summer Collection from Betz White

Becky Striepe — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:00:41 +0000

Did you dig her Family Cottage collection? Get ready to fall for Betz White’s new Indian Summer line of eco fabrics!

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Recycled Wool Felt from Feltwerker

Becky Striepe — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:00:45 +0000

Fall is officially here! It’s cool and blustery, and we’ve got cozy fabrics on our minds. What better way to welcome in the lovely changing leaves and chilly weather than with some beautiful recycled felt? Feltwerker, a Chicago fiber artist, offers beautiful recycled wool felt scraps that you can incorporate into your Fall and winter projects!

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Coconut Fiber

Becky Striepe — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:30:57 +0000

We are obsessed with food-based fibers around here! From banana yarn to pineapple cloth, I’m starting to wonder if we’re feeling more hungry than crafty.

Of course, when Kelly hipped me to coir, a natural fiber made from coconut, I couldn’t pass it up!

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Scrap Ecochic

Becky Striepe — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:00:50 +0000

We’ve talked about the awesomeness of crafting with fabric scraps before, but not everyone has a shamefully stuffed scrap bin like the one in my craft room. If you’re not a hoarder of fabric scraps but still want to get your craft on, don’t fret! Etsy seller Scrap Ecochic has you covered!

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Vintage Finds from Rope

Becky Striepe — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:30:20 +0000

How sweet are these fresh, vintage fabrics from Rope?

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Banana Cloth

Becky Striepe — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:30:02 +0000

We’re on a funky fibers kick around here, it seems! From pineapple yarn to spider silk, we’ve been exploring some unusual natural fabric options. I sent my post about pineapple fabric to a friend a couple of weeks ago, and she pointed me to yet another interesting natural fabric: banana fibers.

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Spider Silk

Becky Striepe — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:15:53 +0000

[Female Golden Orb Spider. Creative Commons photo via quintanaroo]

It is in the name of Fab Fabrics and Halloween that I’m trying to put my fear of spiders on the back burner so I can tell you about the spookiest natural fiber I’ve ever heard of: spider silk.

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: …Pineapple?

Becky Striepe — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:00:59 +0000

Kelly pointed me to these awesome wedding dresses made from pineapple cloth, and my interest was piqued!

It turns out that pineapple fabric, or Piña cloth, is a traditional fiber from the Phillipines dating back from the 1800’s! So here’s the skinny on Piña.

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics at Modern Organic

Becky Striepe — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:30:51 +0000

Melanie O’Brien loves fabric, and I’m already loving her new Etsy shop: Modern Organic Fabrics. Let’s take a peek inside!

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Repeat’s Hand Printed Textiles

Becky Striepe — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:30:40 +0000

I’m pretty much in love with these hand-printed fabrics from Canadian crafty duo Repeat!

Roisin Fagan lives in London and her partner Arounna Khounnoraj is from Toronto. The pair met when they were neighbors at a craft show in Toronto almost three years ago, and they hit it off immediately. After running into each other at several other Toronto shows over the years, where folks kept asking them if they sold their fabrics, they decided to do just that and to do it together!

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Betz White’s Family Cottage Collection

Becky Striepe — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:30:19 +0000

Betz White, author of Sewing Green, launched her premiere fabric line this summer: the Family Cottage collection!

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Greenyarn’s Bamboo Ecofabric

Becky Striepe — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:30:25 +0000

We talked last year about the pros and cons of bamboo. Like hemp, growing bamboo is easier on the environment than conventional fibers such as cotton. Bamboo is technically a weed, which means it grows fast and requires no pesticides and very little water.

One downside to bamboo comes during the production process. Since the plant itself isn’t fibrous, it’s mashed down into sort of a chemical slurry and then pressed into fabric. The process is similar to making rayon. It’s toxic for workers, and it strips the bamboo of its beneficial antimicrobial properties.

There’s also the trouble that comes with anything that gets popular. Despite its speedy growth, there is still a threat of overharvesting bamboo. According to the U.N., around 600 varieties of bamboo are extinct or threatened.

Wait…that doesn’t sound fab at all! Well, Greenyarn, a new Boston-based company, has a new approach to producing bamboo fabric that’s worth a look!

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Betz White, Spoonflower, and a Contest

Becky Striepe — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:30:32 +0000

Betz White and Spoonflower are teaming up, and they want to see how you Sew Green!

To celebrate the release of her book Sewing Green, Betz white designed a special Sewing Green print on organic cotton just for Spoonflower. Not only are they running a deal on the fabric itself, they’re holding a contest where you can win your choice of book from STC Craft, the company that publishes Sewing Green. Here are the deets!

Read more of this story »

Treehugger’s Eco Fabric Roundup

Jackie Hernandez — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:03:13 +0000

We love to feature fabulous eco friendly fabrics here on Crafting A Green World. We often focus on hand printed fabrics by indie designers, but recently Treehugger reminded us large fabric manufacturers are going green too, and in some pretty high tech ways.

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Jenny Lee-Katz Designs

Jackie Hernandez — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:33:48 +0000

I fell in love with these eco-friendly fabrics by Jenny Lee-Katz the moment I saw them (thanks Design*Sponge). With nearly 50 designs to choose from each available on three eco-friendly base cloths, I am sure you can understand my excitement. The designs feature vibrant colors and a contemporary seaside vibe.

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Bionic Yarn

Becky Striepe — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:30:52 +0000

What do you get when a musician and a textile company get together? It looks like what you get is a plan to bring recycled fabric into the mainstream!

Music producer, singer-songwriter, and rapper Pharrell Williams is teaming up with the New York-based textile firm Bionic Yarn to work on a new fabric made from recycled plastic. Williams started out as a hip hop artist, writing lyrics for folks like Wreckx-N-Effects and going on to produce albums and release his own music. He’s had his own fashion lines before, co-founding Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream Footwear. Now, he’s planning to make upcycled fabric a viable option for clothing makers!

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Moxie’s Vintage Fabric Stash

Becky Striepe — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:00:15 +0000

It’s no secret that I love sewing with vintage fabric. Linens and remnants from back in the day just feel like they have a story attached to them. Not only are you giving something old a brand new life, you get to add to its history.

Sometimes it’s a bit tricky to track down a good variety of vintage fabric, but Megan over at Moxie makes it a bit easier with her fantastical selection of vintage fabrics!

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Limited Edition Hemp and Organic Cotton from PickNatural

Becky Striepe — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:30:29 +0000

Alright, so by now it’s pretty clear that I am a hemp fan and in love with organic cotton and those lovely hemp/cotton blends. Really, though, can you blame me? There are so many gorgeous options out there, and just when I think I’ve discovered them all, someone sends me a page including a fabric blend that I’d never seen before and prints that knocked my socks off!

Check out these beautiful fabric swatches:

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Raid Your Scrap Bin!

Becky Striepe — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:00:00 +0000

As I’ve confessed here before, I can’t stand to throw things away. Sometimes, that causes some storage problems. Other times, though, it means inadvertently collecting an awesome stash of fun fabric scraps! Let’s focus on those times.

Even if you’re careful to only choose organic, sustainable fabric options, there’s a carbon footprint that goes along with any new materials: from production to shipping to your trip to the fabric store, all of that adds up. If you’re not a scrap-saver now, give it a shot! You’ll be surprised at how fast those bits and pieces accumulate, especially if you sew on a regular basis. Not only does sewing with scraps keep that fabric out of the waste stream, it’s super duper fun! Here are a bunch of great projects you can make using those odds and ends.

Read more of this story »