Since I am learning to sew (better) right now and actually don’t own t-shirts I want to cut up I decided to delve into the saucy project #69 “Cinch City” with some organic cotton scrap fabric. I bought my organic cotton for $2 downtown Asheville NC where the Spiritex warehouse sells off the leftovers from their locally woven organic fabric production. (Major score!) The “Cinch City” skirt truly was easy, although they say to only cut one rectangle to make the tube skirt, I actually had to go back in and make more of an angle to fit my waist. To make this skirt all you need is a swatch of organic or upcycled fabric big enough to wrap around your waist & hip, a ribbon, and the most basic sewing skills. It really inspired me to use more drawstring and cinching in my sewing for decorative effect! You can get super creative with this simple design too by making a longer more sultry skirt, instead of the Vegas style mini- or even adding a drawstring cinch at the waistline too so that you can fluctuate in weight and still sport your skirt, well, forever.

Many of the projects in the book are also no sew, and so basic you will want to giggle. What’s even cooler is in the second half of the book they show you how to take all your tiny scraps and make hair pieces, fabric flowers, earrings, and shag-a-delic rugs so that nothing goes to waste. If that isn’t amazing enough, the finale project is an entire upcycled wedding dress made entirely from 6 white t-shirts!

 I give this book a green crafty star for being so environmentally friendly and resourceful, and for inspiring it’s reader (like me) to think of even more ways to use up the things we think are crafting garbage. If you now feel like you have to have this book (and I agree that you do), keep with your eco-minded style and buy it used or see if your local library carries a copy.

Have you made any creations using t-shirts or fabric scraps? Tell us about it and send pics of them at craftingagreenworld@greenoptions.com! We love to see what you’re crafting green <3 !

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.)

If you’re going to donate supplies, please be thoughtful and make sure what you’re donating is appropriate. Someone in our guild once donated vinyl to the baby quilts project… um, ok… thanks, I guess…

The CUREchief Foundation provides scarves to people with cancer, alopecia, and other conditions which may cause hair loss. These CUREchiefs can be worn on the head, or around the neck. They accept donations of cotton, flannel, and polar fleece for their volunteers to use in making CUREchiefs. For their address, see their Volunteer Page.

Care Wear Volunteers has volunteers nationwide who make and donate handmade baby items to hospitals. Founder Bonnie Hagerman sent me this information about what they need:

Care Wear Volunteers appreciates receiving donated yarn, fiberfil, quilt batting, narrow white lace, flannel, broadcloth, and other fabrics suitable for children’s toys, apparel, and blankets/quilts. Donated supplies will be distributed to volunteers who request assistance with their projects that are donated to hospitalized children. Contact: Bonnie Hagerman, Care Wear Volunteers, c/o Hood College, 401 Rosemont Avenue, Frederick, MD 21701

Members of the Charity Craft Volunteer Network in Central Texas craft to help infants, children, breast cancer patients, elders with Alzheimer’s, patients in hospice, and others. They can use fabric, yarn, fiberfill, batting, and thread. You can see the types of items they make. Their Donate Page has the address.

Newborns In Need focuses on helping needy families clothe their babies and keep them warm by providing clothing and blankets to families taking their infants home from the hospital. Appropriate donations of fabric, sewing notions, and patterns are welcome. Donations may be sent to Newborns in Need National Office, 3323 Transou Road, Pfafftown, NC 27040.

You can contact the local chapter coordinator for the Project Linus nearest you to find out whether they need fabric for making kids’ blankets. “Materials must be new, unused and free of contaminants such as mold, mildew and smoke. They should be cotton or cotton/poly blends.”

The Preemie Project has chapters in Iowa and Michigan that make items for the NICU, PICU, and infant bereavement programs. Their Donate Page is up to date with needed supplies, including flannel, fleece, thread, ribbon, and lace.

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.

First up, online mega-shop EQuilter. Doing a plain text search for organic products was tough here, because they also use the word organic to describe some of the designs. Once I found the right category, though it was easy to see their products. ORGANIC Solids, Textures & Threads offers YLI organic cotton thread, Michael Miller organic cotton sheeting, herringbone, fleece, terrycloth, and “fuzzy sherpa” (anyone want to tell me what that is?). They also offer “organically dyed” handmade cotton fabric “dyed by hand with natural elements such as vegetables, berries, minerals, and more.” The cotton itself is not organic, but the dyes are earth-friendly. They have eco-spun fleece in one color, latte tan.

My next stop was Hancock’s of Paducah. They carry the Michael Miller fabrics, including the gingham check that EQuilter doesn’t seem to have, as well as organic cotton batting.

What about Joann.com? They have Lion Brand and Bernat organic cotton yarn, plus organic cotton batting on a roll, but nothing else. (They do have recycled paper cardstock for scrapbooking, which is kind of cool.)

Keepsake Quilting is near and dear to my heart, since I once got stranded there for four hours when a friend and I drove up from Boston on a pilgrimage and then had to call a tow truck to jump her ailing vehicle. Yes, stuck in Keepsake Quilting for hours. It was HORRIBLE. (Kind of. Not really.) I was really hoping they would knock my socks off with organic products. They have the YLI organic cotton thread, as well as two fabric medleys: the lightweight Oasis Canvas Medley in solid colors and the Woodblock Vegetable Dye Medley, which is kind of paisley and stripey and floral. The former is organic cotton fabric, the latter is printed with vegetable dyes.

Hobby Lobby doesn’t sell online; they partner with Crafts Etc. All they have is some recycled paper sketch pads.

Michaels, though, had even less. They had nothing.

So what does this mean for green crafting? Autumn has asked crafters what would be in the green craft store of their dreams, and I have to say that I had no idea we were so far from it. I don’t go to craft stores very much, and when I do I’m looking for one specific thing. I’m more used to grocery stores, and in crunchy Austin, organic products are popping up left and right even at the corner market.

I try to think about the average crafter in mythical Middle America and whether she or he would be interested in greener options. I think so. Crafters are a thrifty lot, and we pride ourselves on using our supplies wisely. So how do we get the word out to them about greener alternatives?

The First Runner Up is Becky, a loyal fan of Crafting A Green World and a wonderfully obsessed crafter who writes the blog Sew & So. Becky’s upcycle fashion is totally awesome cause she is willing to experiment with some really super fugly clothes and manages to  resuscitate life back into their once doomed future. Her ability to take a way out of style bridesmaid’s dress belonging to her mom and turn it into this adorable cocktail dress rocks! For the record, Becky has inspired me to go on an upcycling 8o’s prom dress binge that has been really fun. The Before and After shots of her mad sewing skillz really drive home the point…lame can be made cute.

The Crowning Queen of Upcycled Fashion is the lovely Suzannah **hands over a dozen organic roses and vintage tiara**. She hails from Vermont where she has been “obsessively making oodles of clothes from recycled and organic fabric” and with colorful, fun, and innovative results. Suzannah manages to find really vibrant upcycle fabrics and chooses wonderful combinations of these bright hues to make the style of her clothes really pop out.  You can see clearly in her creations how she makes use of scrap fabrics and the simplicity of design lends to current yet timeless pieces - and timeless is superb for the environment. Doesnt that sun dress & tank look so perfect for this hot summer inferno? Congrats to Suzannah!

Thanks for sending in all your awesome pictures and please send more. It’s so much fun to share crafting achievements, especially when they give momentum to the green crafts movement!

“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!

The Recycled Crafts blog on the Craft Gossip network focuses on crafts that turn trash into treasure. Editor Alissa Cyphers does a great job linking to tutorials, Etsy sellers, and green crafting news. This one is fun and fresh.

The tagline on Sew and Sew is “Because I can’t find a twelve-step program for my creativity addiction.” We’re so glad Becky hasn’t yet discovered a program like this, because otherwise we’d be deprived of her fab sewing projects that repurpose clothing into new stuff.

Organic Clothing, a blog by the owners of Lotus Organics, isn’t updated very often. That’s perfectly okay, because we don’t expect anyone to write such wonderful, information packed articles every day. If you care about issues in fabric and fashion, you should check it out.

No list of green crafting blogs would be complete without including Earth Tones on Etsy. If it’s green in the wonderful world of Etsy, you’ll find it here.

Online fabric supershop Near Sea Naturals has a blog, and you really should be reading it if you want to know about new organic fabrics, trims, and sales.

My Recycled Bags is, you guessed it, about recycled bags. Cindy is all about the green crafting. She’s also dealing with breast cancer right now, so send all your good thoughts her way.

All right, now it’s your turn. What blogs do you read for green crafting inspiration?

Related posts: A Fine Mess of Indie Craft, The Eco-Crafters List of Demands, Green Crafts on BlogHer.

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?

Unlike what I found when I looked for safety information, I only found one online resource concentrated on environmental impact of using art and craft supplies. Pollution Prevention for Arts Education by the Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center, jointly operated by the Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), contains tips and information on non-toxic and least toxic supplies and disposal issues. There are no federal laws yet requiring that arts and craft supplies, or anything else, be assessed for their environmental impact throughout the product’s lifecycle, so there’s no uniform standard. Unless the product has some kind of eco certification label on it, manufacturers probably aren’t addressing the issue, and even if it’s labeled you don’t necessarily know what that label means without additional research.So I set out to answer four basic questions on my own:

• What is it?
• How is it made? (What are the ingredients, process, and waste products?)
• What happens when you throw it away?
• Is there anything better we could use?

Though what I found is specific to fusible web, answering these four questions about any product should be a good start in understanding whether a product is green or not so much.

What is it?

First stop, the manufacturer’s websites. The Steam A Seam website yields no clues. The Stitch Witchery website offers this: “Stitch Witchery is a polyamide fusible web that permanently bonds two layers of fabric together.” Polyamides, says Wikipedia, can occur naturally but are also produced artificially. Polyamides are a type of plastic, and more specifically they are what’s known as a semi-crystalline plastic. One of the main synthetic polyamides is nylon, which leads me to believe that fusible web is fairly related to nylon. I found several other articles in various places that describe nylon as the trade name for polyamides, so I’m going to proceed under the assumption that I can evaluate fusible web by evaluating nylon.

How is it made?

If I were going to make fusible web, what would I buy? (Aside from a factory.) What process would I use to make it? What waste would be generated? I’ve always seen people saying that synthetic fabrics are less environmentally friendly than natural ones, but I didn’t really know what that meant.

The Chemical Heritage Foundation, “dedicated to preserving and promoting the progress of science,” has an educational website called “Spinning the Elements: Wallace Carothers and the Nylon Legacy.” It says this about the manufacturing process:

… adipic acid is mixed with hexamethylene diamine at room temperature… The nylon salt is then purified. This nylon salt is a crystalline solid. When the time to make nylon comes, one just has to heat the nylon salt to over 285 ^oC, and it reacts to become nylon polymer.

Back to Wikipedia. Adipic acid was historically made from fats, but now it’s made from cyclohexane. Cyclohexane “cannot easily be obtained from natural resources such as coal” and must be manufactured from benzene or petroleum using other chemicals. The International Chemical Safety Card for cyclohexane is really scary as far as health effects and risk of explosion, but the Australian fact sheet on cyclohexane seems to indicate that environmentally it’s not that bad. Hexamethylene diamine is “highly toxic and can cause serious injuries.” It’s made from adiponitrile. If follow adiponitrile back in the process, you’re looking at a petrochemical origin.

Anyone else having a sinking feeling?

After I did all of that Wikipedia-ing, I did a little more digging to see if I got it right. How “Green” is Your Gear? The Environmental Impact of Nylon by Geoffrey Skinner, written in the Spring of 2000, discusses an article in the National Outdoor Leadership School’s newsletter The Leader from 1999 and a 1998 article in the respected journal Science. Skinner reports that the manufacture of nylon, from petroleum products, involves the release of pollutant nitrous oxide. A method for reducing the nitrous oxide emissions had been developed, but at the time of his article it was more expensive and not in wide use.

UK website GreenChoices describes nitrous oxide as “a greenhouse gas 310 times more potent than carbon dioxide” and notes that nylon manufacture uses a lot of energy. A 1991 paper in Science estimated that manufacture of nylon may account for 10% of the increase in atmospheric nitrous oxide, which contributes to destruction of ozone.

Is this a rigorous scientific review on my part? No. Is it enough for me to get the gist? Yes.

What happens when you throw it away?

Nylon doesn’t biodegrade, and we know that’s bad. Nylon carpet has some possibilities for recycling, but I didn’t find any other examples of nylon recycling and it gives off toxic fumes when incinerated. Ugh. Granted, fusible web, like many arts and craft supplies, is made to be used up and not tossed out.

Is there anything better we could use?

I got rid of all my son’s plastic toys, bottles, and dishes this past weekend, because I had finally decided that it was worth my peace of mind to replace them with wood, glass, and cloth (preferably thrifted or handmade). I guess the question for each crafter, like each parent, is when a product is bad enough that you’re willing to give it up. Fusible web and nylon are made from petrochemicals and create toxic byproducts, which doesn’t count as sustainable in anyone’s book.

Applique was not born with the invention of fusibles, and people somehow made clothes before fusible interfacing was available. How much is the convenience of fusibles worth?

In my post about the Amish and green quilting, I mentioned that quilters often point to the t-shirt quilt as a great example of recycling. However, the dominant method for stabilizing t-shirts so they can be easily pieced into a quilt is to back them with fusible web. (It’s like in Autumn’s post about making a bag out of playing cards, when she observed that a major component of that “recycled” craft project was duct tape and laminate.) Not all knits are fused before they’re sewn, or my cotton tank tops would be awfully stiff, so I imagine that there would be a way to make these quilts without fusibles. It would just make the sewing (a lot) more difficult.

I have a t-shirt quilt in waiting upstairs, and I have already purchased the fusible web for it, so I’m going to make it. Throwing the stuff away won’t un-do the damage caused by its manufacture. But I’m going to think long and hard about whether it’s worth making another one.

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.

My first stop on my research odyssey was the packaging of the product in question. I have some Steam-A-Seam and Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 in my studio upstairs, so I went to take a look. On the back, I found the following statement:

Steam-A-Seam poses no chronic or adverse health effects when used as intended and conforms to LHAMA Regulations, ASTM D4236-94. Testing is in accordance with guidelines specified by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 16 CFR 1500.135.

Huh? Time for a little Google searching.

The Art and Creative Materials Institute, a non-profit association of manufacturers of art and craft supplies, explains LHAMA thusly:

Under the U. S. Labeling of Hazardous Art Materials Act (LHAMA), all art materials sold in the U. S. must be evaluated by a qualified toxicologist and labeled, if necessary, for chronic toxicity according to the chronic hazard labeling standard, ASTM D 4236. LHAMA, which went into effect November 18, 1990, amends the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA) to require art and craft materials manufacturers to evaluate their products for their ability to cause chronic illness (such as cancer) and to place labels on those products that provide health and cautionary information and safe use instructions. FHSA already required manufacturers to evaluate and label for acute toxicity.

The labeling standard ASTM D4236-94 was developed as a voluntary standard by the private standards developing company ASTM previous to the passage of LHAMA. The final federal rule on labeling was issued in 1992, and it codified the ASTM standard as a mandatory requirement. According to Michael McCann of the Center for Safety in the Arts, the way the federal rule defined hazards as follows (emphasis mine):

A substance is a chronic hazard if it is a known or probable human carcinogen, and has a cancer risk of one in a million or more, or is a known or probable neurotoxic or reproductive or developmental toxicant, and if exposure is above a certain defined level (Allowable Daily Intake). This level is based on levels known to affect humans or animals, with the incorporation of safety factors. The definition of a known human carcinogen, for example, is for which there is “sufficient evidence” of carcinogenicity in humans, and a probable human carcinogen is one in which there is “limited evidence” of carcinogenicity in humans or “sufficient evidence” in animals (16 CFR 1500.135). Similar definitions apply to neurotoxins and developmental or reproductive toxicants.

So if my packages of fusible web are correctly labeled, I shouldn’t have to worry about getting poisoned today (acute toxicity) or that pesky brain damage that Autumn was mentioning (chronic hazard).

The history of LHAMA that I’ve read indicates that it was passed into law with the support of arts organizations in cooperation with manufacturers who wanted a single federal law to preempt individual state laws that were being passed.  So my guess is that LHAMA is better than nothing, but not as aggressive as it could be.  The recent scuffle about BPA in baby bottles (and the FDA’s decision to re-evaluate their previous position) has shown that the feds aren’t always the leaders on these issues, but at least there are some requirements for testing and labeling these products.

Autumn asked me how often the standards themselves are updated and whether products are re-evaluated as additional information is discovered.  From what I can tell from the ASTM website, the standards seem to have been updated in 2001 and 2005… but there’s not exactly a FAQ on the site that explains how to interpret the search results for any given standards.  The general public probably doesn’t wander by too often trying to figure this stuff out.

Leslie also pointed out to me that the testing is done on single products, not products in combination, “like mixing prescription drugs.”  At least when you’re using prescription drugs, your doctor and pharmacist are supposed to check for interactions.  I don’t think your local craft store personnel are qualified to provide that kind of technical support.

Now to evaluate environmental impact… check back next week for the next installment.

Resources for Arts and Crafts Safety Information

There are a number of online resources for checking on the safety risks of various products:

• Health and Safety in the Arts: A Searchable Database of Health and Safety Information for Artists by the City of Tucson’s Environmental Management Division
• Art and Creative Materials Institute’s database of safe arts and crafts supplies (which I found out about originally from our sister blog Eco Child’s Play), but keep in mind that ACMI is an association of manufacturers and not a disinterested party
• National Institutes of Health Household Products Database that includes a section for supplies used in Arts and Crafts. The information in this database “is taken from a variety of publicly available sources, including brand-specific labels and Material Safety Data Sheets prepared by manufacturers.”

While not as wide-ranging as the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database by Environmental Working Group, it’s good that there’s something.

Here are a few other resources for your perusal:

• Art and Craft Safety Guide (PDF), Publication 5015, Consumer Product Safety Commission, focusing on children’s arts and crafts
• Keeping the Artist Safe: Hazards of Arts and Crafts Materials, a directory of information created by the Specialized Information Services of the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health
• Resources: Art - Supplies at Greening Schools, a joint effort of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IL EPA) and the Illinois Waste Management and Research Center (WMRC)

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.

The Organic Clothing blog, run by the folks at Lotus Organics Clothing, had a piece back in 2005 called Tencel: Sustainable but not necessarily healthy. It turns out that just like with bamboo, there are parts of the process in making lyocell that aren’t as green as we wish they were. I’m not saying I wouldn’t buy it, but it’s good to keep in mind that nothing is perfect and we just need to make the best informed choices we can.

PM Organics was founded by two moms who were looking for organic fabrics to use for making children’s clothing and cloth diapers:

We were tired of not having reasonably-priced sources of organic fabrics and were sure that others shared our feelings! As word of our fabric co-op got out, more and more people joined. Clearly, people wanted these fabrics, but like us, could not find them, at least not at affordable prices. So, we gathered all the cash we could, bought as many rolls of fabrics as we could, and started offering these wonderful organic knit fabrics as an on-going business venture.

Shops like PM Organics are a great resource for the rest of us, because they bring together so many different fabrics in one place. We wish them well in their move and look forward to updates as they get settled in their new home.

Previous Posts in the Fabulous Fabrics Series:

• Fabulous Vintage Kimono Fabric at Ah! Kimono
• Fabulous Fabrics: Michael Miller Organics
• Fabulous Fabrics: Hemp Linen And Twill From Earth Friendly Goods

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.

Ah! Kimono offers five different fabric packs that include cuts of different sizes, from 4×6 inches to 14×28 inches. Most of the fabrics are silk or silk blends. You can select a color family or ask for a pack split between two color families.

They sell kits for a folded purse and a small bag, as well as monthly and quarterly fabric clubs in case you are troubled with an excess of disposable income.

You may be thinking to yourself, “What would I do with kimono fabric?” If you are, set aside two or three hours and search for “vintage kimono” on Etsy. You’ll find a wealth of crafty inspiration for using these gorgeous fabrics. Here are a few of my favorites Etsy folks who use kimono fabric:

• Kimonocards
• AtelierKanawa
• Run Amok

(Remember to use other crafters’ designs for inspiration, not duplication, unless you have permission!)

Other Posts About Reusing and Remaking Clothing

• Tied Up In Knots About Recycling?
• Upcycle Old Jeans Into A Sexy Mini
• Recycle Sweaters Into Yarn

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.

Luckily for us, they persevered and created a small collection of fabrics and a couple of trims in warm, natural tones. Included in the organic collection are one each of gingham, terry, fleece, sheeting, sherpa, a plain herringbone, the herringbone check shown above, felt, gingham bias trim, and gingham “ruffle rac.”

While it’s a small collection, it’s a big step forward to see organic fabrics for home crafting that are affordably priced. I’m not knocking the high-end organic cotton home decorating fabrics like those made by Mod Green Pod and Oliveira Textiles. Those companies make beautiful fabrics. It’s just nice to see the spectrum of fabrics filling out with choices for a variety of projects and budgets.

Michael Miller Organics fabrics and trim are available from J. Caroline.

Related Resources:

• Earth-friendly choices for batting and stuffing.
• Online shop Near Sea Naturals.
• Hemp Linen and Twill from Earth Friendly Goods.
• Harmony Art Organic Design fabrics

Unfortunately, well-loved jeans don’t age gracefully. The culprit: holes in the knees, pockets, or back. If your favorite jeans start to look “holier than thou,” don’t despair.

With a needle, some thread, and a little love, you can turn dying jeans into designer jeans. (DIY difficulty level: Easy)

I suspect that if you’re reading this site, you already have easy access to a needle and thread. But if thimbles and thread-rippers are Greek to you, then you’ll be happy to know that learning to sew by hand is very easy.

Step 1: Take your holy jeans, a sewing needle, and some thread. When choosing the color of thread, consult your inner fashion designer. (We all have one somewhere.)

• If you want the thread to show when you’re finished sewing, then choose a color of thread that would look great with the rest of the stitches on the jeans.
• If you don’t want the thread to show, then choose a color similar to the fabric of the jeans.

Step 2: You’ll also need a scrap of denim or two. My favorite jeans were hand-me-down Italian Energie jeans that I’d never bothered to hem, so I hemmed them before this project and used the extra fabric as my scrap fabric. If you don’t have some denim lying around, you can get some at your local crafts store. Or you could sacrifice a less-than-favorite pair of jeans. If your inner fashion designer is really an artistic wizard, you might also try patching your jeans with non-denim materials.

Step 3: Patching the jeans.

1. Place the scrap of material that you’ll use for the patch on the inside of the jeans. Make sure that the scrap more than covers the hole. Denim frays, so you’ll want to leave room for the material to fray by making your scrap about an inch larger (on all sides) than the hole you’re patching.
2. Thread the needle with your choice of thread and tie off the ends. Then push the needle and thread through the scrap and into your jeans. Be sure to start sewing from the inside! The tied-off ends of the thread should be on the inside of your jeans so they’re not visible.
3. Before you begin sewing, you have a decision to make: to make the thread visible or not. If you don’t want the thread to be visible, then every time you insert the needle into the outside of the jeans, insert it as close as possible to where the thread is coming out of the jeans.
4. As you sew, keep the needle and thread about 1/2 inch from the edge of both the scrap and jeans fabric. This will allow some room for fraying as the material ages.

Step 4: Finishing up

Sew all the way around the hole. When you’re done, you’ll have your favorite old jeans feeling like new. Plus, you can wear them proudly, knowing that your creative smarts went into making them look sharp.

The final product! (Note: Like my flower pillow? Yes, all Korean beds that I could find here really are this feminine.)

Related articles:

What Can You Do With Jeans

Top 5 Must Have DIY Sewing Tomes 

Photo credit: djloche (above); Me (left).

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.

All of the quilters I know keep a collection of fabric scraps and leftovers that we are just positive we are going to use someday. Throwing away a bit of fabric is tough, even when it’s only 1 inch by 1 inch. (Hey, there’s always miniature paper piecing.) We also plan before we cut and we cut carefully so we don’t use any more of the fabric than we have to. It’s expensive, and we want to have some left to use for other projects if we can.

The Amish, however, take this to another level. How many quilters have actually sworn off particular techniques because they are too resource-intensive? How many crafters have sworn off new materials, only using leftovers from other activities? For example, we like to think that t-shirt quilts are a great recycling project. But for every t-shirt quilt that keeps part of a shirt out of a landfill, we throw part of each shirt away and then use fusible web, batting, and a backing fabric to finish the quilt. I don’t think the Amish would be terribly impressed.

The Amish commitment to their way of life is motivated by religion and not just by environmental concerns, but their example does make me stop and think. They aren’t consuming their way to a greener world. They’re deliberately limiting their consumption.

They aren’t doing without beauty, though. If all they wanted was to keep warm, they wouldn’t have to piece the quilt top at all. Looking at their quilts makes me think of folks who fear going green because they don’t want to sacrifice style, beauty, or comfort. Collectors Stephen and Faith Brown have been generous enough to create an online gallery of some of the Amish quilts in their collection. When you look at a quilt in that gallery, do you miss the mitered border?

The authoritative work on these quilts is The Amish Quilt by Eve Wheatcroft Granick, the cover of which is pictured above. I’m looking forward to reading it and learning more about this green quilting tradition.

Related Posts:

• Top 5 Quilting Ideas for “Use What You Have” Month
• What Can You Do With Jeans?
• Winter Woolies, featuring an artist’s reponse to waste in the garment industry

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.

I love their description of what it’s good for (emphasis mine):

Soft and comfortable, the interlock feels marvelous against your skin. You’ll love it for sundresses and other summer wear, for a feral baby, for unexpectedly interesting long johns, pajamas, boxer-briefs, and other intimates, for T-shirts and classic tops, …

I didn’t realize feral babies needed clothes, but I guess it does get a little chilly out in the woods!

I also love this pumpkin jersey, also 100% cotton. Although as a pale redhead, I probably couldn’t wear this color, a lack of immediate practical application for a fabric isn’t really a barrier to purchase. (You may have noticed this in my post about thrifted sheets, and look how well that turned out - people have shown up to give me plenty of ideas!)

Near Sea Naturals can send you a swatch of one of their fabrics for 50 cents if you need to see and feel it, or you can get a swatch packet of some of their basic fabrics.

Did I mention the kits? Oh yes, they also have sewing kits. If you need an apron, a tipi, a pair of boxers, or some baby clothes, check them out.

The Near Sea Naturals blog will keep you up to date on new fabrics and products. The pre-cut and clearance page might score you a good deal. What more could you need?

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.

I could use it for the back of a quilt, since I do all my sewing by machine. If you’re going to hand quilt, DO NOT use a sheet unless you enjoy blisters, bleeding, and adding an unfinished project to your pile of UFOs. There are some concerns with poly-blend sheets and sheets with high thread counts, so choose carefully. Look for fairly new 100% cotton sheets and prewash them thoroughly. And if you’re going to send the quilt out to a longarm quilter, make sure you check with that person first to see if they accept sheets as quilt backs. Some don’t.

Unfortunately, my sheet doesn’t work with any of the three quilts I have going, and starting another quilt to go with a back seems a little silly.  If I didn’t have a baby and I could pretend that I could work on four quilts at once, I might do it anyway, but not right now.

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