Green Options

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Sometimes I get rid of fabric.

Shocking, right? Fabric is meant to be hoarded, right? But honestly, though those old pastel celestial prints might be useful for insulating my house or making my fridge run more efficiently, I am so over the stars thing and I am never going to use this stuff.

My local quilt guild takes donations of kid-friendly and soldier-friendly fabrics for various community service projects, but what if you don’t have a guild nearby? And more importantly, is there anything I can do to find a new life for the perfectly good yarn that I often see abandoned in thrift stores and at garage sales?

Here are five organizations that accept donations of craft supplies. Feel free to add more in the comments. I’ve tried to stick to permanent organizations instead of individuals or temporary efforts, and this list contains only organizations where I could confirm they accept donations. (There are hundreds upon hundreds of organizations listed all over the web, and hundreds of websites, but many of them no longer exist.)

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.

Let’s see, how to introduce a list of my favorite green crafting blogs that aren’t us? Hmm.

“More ways to spend time on the internet instead of working.” Probably true, but slightly too cheeky.

“More ways to spend time on the internet instead of crafting.” Again, probably true, or maybe I’m just projecting my personal issues?

How about: “These are cool, you should read them!”

Slightly dull, but honestly I’m a bit tired today and that may be as good as it gets. So without further ado, here are some of my personal favorite green craft blogs, big and small. Check out our blogroll for more, and feel free to add your suggestions in the comments!

In Part 1 of How Safe and Green Are Your Crafting Supplies?, I went on a quest to find out about the safety of my test case crafting product, fusible web. (As you’ll recall, it’s a synthetic product that’s like a cross between fabric and glue, and it works as an adhesive when you iron it.)

Though I was not 100% reassured by what I found, there are at least some safety regulations in place for arts and craft supplies, and fusible web does meet those standards. So let’s move on to my next challenge: assess the environmental impact.

The environmental impact of many products is pretty evident. Oil is a non-renewable resource and it creates toxins when you burn it, so I think it’s a no-brainer to bubble in “No” on the sustainability question in the answer booklet. Bottled water exchanges an efficient public delivery system for an inefficient private one and creates a massive pile of barely recyclable containers.

Fusible web, though, isn’t as immediately apparent to me. Obviously, any product that is manufactured (unless it’s Cradle to Cradle certified, Autumn reminded me) uses up resources and thus isn’t as environmentally benign as going without or re-using something that was already made. But beyond the issues posed by using any manufactured product, is there anything else going on with fusible web that is praiseworthy or less so?

In Autumn’s post The Eco-Crafters List of Demands, she asked crafters for their thoughts on how to make commerically sold craft supplies more friendly to the planet and the people who live on it. One question she asked particularly stood out to me:

What items have such scary warning labels that you are asking yourself, “Is this project worth giving myself brain damage over?”

One of the products that immediately came to my mind was fusible web. Fusible web is a synthetic fiber that melts when you heat it. Brand names for these products include Steam-A-Seam, Stitch Witchery, and others. If you’re not familiar with it, think of it as thin sheets of fabric infused with glue. If you need two pieces of fabric to stick together, or you’re working with a fabric that needs a little extra support to either stand up or hold still, then you may end up using your iron to attach some fusible web to your project. You’ll often find fusible web in applique, t-shirt quilts, and used as interfacing in clothing.

But honestly, I’ve never tried to research it and figure out whether it’s a product I can feel good about using. Can it hurt me by touching it?  Is it safe to heat glue with an iron and breathe at the same time?  I have educated myself about food, personal care products, and clothing, and made (not enough) changes in my life based on what I found. So far, though, I haven’t given my crafting products much scrutiny beyond my varied attempts to use my local thrift store as a craft supply shop.

So just how easy is it to find out whether a product is safe and eco-friendly? Using fusible web as my test case, I set out to get some answers. Some of what I found may be old hat to y’all, but I learned quite a lot. In today’s post, I cover safety issues ; watch for Part 2 about environmental issues next week.

I know, I know, it’s like we’re obsessed with denim around here. Gavin showed us how to patch our jeans if we’re not ready to let them go, then Leslie showed us how to recycle a pair into a sexy miniskirt and use the leftovers to make a shopping bag. (Personally, I’m waiting for Gavin to upcycle HIS jeans into a miniskirt…)

My favorite jeans have finally died, and before I saw Gavin’s post I was planning to start a denim quilt. Denim quilts are heavy duty for picnics and playing on at the park, and I was just at Goodwill this past weekend so I’m inspired by the availability of cheap denim that needs a second chance at life.

Then I started to think about my “dead” jeans from a green point of view. The mantra Reduce, Reuse, Recycle doesn’t include the word “repair,” but it probably should. Reducing is best, reusing or repairing is good, recycling is a last resort. I had decided to recycle my jeans rather than repair them because I had this notion that patched jeans look “run down.” It’s like I’ve been trained by society that if a repair is visible, it makes the garment worthless.

Let’s get serious, people. I am a stay-at-home / work-at-home mother of an eight month old baby. I spend most of my waking hours in my own house. I get spit up on a lot. I crawl around on the floor to retrieve pacifiers and toys. Who the heck is going to put me on What Not To Wear for sporting a pair of patched jeans? I thrifted a “new” pair to replace them for going out, but if I can get more life out of the old ones, why not do it? Also, that way the new ones won’t be worn every day and they’ll last longer for occasions nicer than than cleaning pureed sweet potato out of someone’s hair.

I’m not saying that I’m going to spend all day in clothes I hate in order to be green, but I think it’s time for me to fight my way out of the trap that equates repaired with flawed.

At this point you may be thinking “Um, excuse me, wasn’t the title of this post DENIM QUILTS?”

Yes! Even though my favorite jeans aren’t going to be included, I still want to make a denim quilt.

PM Organics, like Near Sea Naturals, is an online shop crammed with “Textiles You Feel Good About.” PM Organics is currently closed as they move cross-country, but I thought I’d highlight them anyway since they are such a great source of eco-friendly fabrics and other supplies. You can sign up for their mailing list if you want an update when they get settled and re-open.

Their knits section includes organic cottons and blends in jersey, rib, fleece, terry, thermal, and interlock. Wovens include a few sateen sheetings, hemp and hemp blends, and twill. They also have organic cotton lace in three widths and 3/4 inch organic cotton twill tape which they note is “perfect for stabilizing seams, drawstrings, reinforcement or trim.” Organic cotton bias tape, elastic, and thread is currently sold out, but folks on the email list will get updated when they become available again.

The black floating seed crepe pictured above is 50% Organic Cotton/50% Tencel Crepe, and it’s only 10 bucks a yard. It also comes in nutmeg and seafoam. I had no idea what Tencel was, so I went to find out.

It turns out that Tencel is a brand name for a fiber called lyocell which is made of the cellulose found in wood pulp. That sounds great from a sustainability point of view compared to synthetic fabrics. But as with all products, you have to do your homework and be aware of the whole picture before making decisions.

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.

Surprise, surprise the weather turned gorgeous this past weekend here in our Nations capital and I enjoyed the sun outside at a few choice locations. Usually one to bring along my own water bottle when venturing outdoors, I forgot. Inevitably I got thirsty in the hot sun and needed to quench it. So, I did the one thing that I really hate to do and bought a bottled water.

I know. I know. We actually all know the reasons not to do this. But my thirst won out and I was left with a happy sigh and an empty bottle.

To give myself a little bit of redemption, I gladly toted the empty bottle around for the rest of the day with all intentions for bringing it home, destined for the recycle bin. On my return home, I instead left it on my desk and contemplated the water bottle’s next life as a possible craft.

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.

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.