By Skye Kilaen •
September 23, 2008
So there I was, looking through the HempTraders website. Ah yes, I said to myself, they have all kinds of hemp and hemp blends. Hemp knits, hemp stretch fabrics, hemp linen and muslin, hemp canvas, and even hemp / silk blends and satins. They have hemp upholstery fabric too.
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.
By Skye Kilaen •
July 29, 2008
Once again, I must give credit to the wonderful Kim of fabric blog True Up for introducing me to an eco-friendlier fabric. The Andover Vegetable Dyes collection of cottons isn’t made from organic cotton, but it addresses the other side of the green fabric equation: the materials used in dyeing.
Leslie here at Crafting A Green World has talked to us about non-toxic dyeing using natural materials. This collection is a larger scale equivalent of Leslie using her landlady’s plums to cook up some pretty fabric.
The collection is carried by Z&S Fabrics and Strawberry Patches, and the latter of which has some background information about the collection that is not found on Andover’s website.
By Skye Kilaen •
June 17, 2008
So far in the Fabulous Fabrics series, I’ve been looking at offerings from independent designers as well as specialty online shops. We’ve seen organic cotton, recycled fleece, hemp, and other fabrics that try to step more lightly on our common home.
That’s great for people reading this blog and other green crafting blogs, but large scale change is going to require many, many crafters demanding organic and other earth-friendly products. If all the products are sequestered in little green boutiques, that’s going to be a slow process. What about the crafters who aren’t reading this blog? Do they know these products exist? Have any of these products gone mainstream? I went on a hunt through some of the biggest mainstream fabric shops’ websites to find out.
By Kelly Rand •
April 21, 2008
It is hard to talk about stuffing and not talk about batting. They are practically the same material, except the former is loose and used for pillows and plushes and the later is formed into flat layers perfect for quilting.
Like the world of plushes and softies, quilting is another craft that I have been keeping an eye on, but have yet to fully try out. The concept seems easy enough, but I’ve never been very patient and can’t quite get the whole measure twice, cut once, thing down. A friend of mine recently made me a quilt and I am in awe of the time and talent that she put into it.
Quilting is definitely on the move in the crafting world and quickly becoming the hip craft to do. The exploding popularity of Amy Butler and Denyse Schmidt have propelled this craft into the lime light and it is easy to see why.
