12 Ways Fabric Lovers Can Save the Planet
Reuse, Recycle, Go Organic in Your Quilts and Fabric Art
Oct 18, 2009
What can fabric lovers do to help save the environment?
First and perhaps a most effective way to support safe environmental efforts is to throw your business to companies who are striving to go green. Second - encourage clothing and fabric manufacturers to cut waste, not just the throw aways but the toxins that wash out into our streams and lands.
In your own homes, sewing rooms and studios, think about or practice these twelve tips for greening up your own attitudes.
- Use products made from organic fibers and organic cotton.
- Cut down or eliminate the use of plastic bags for groceries and shopping by making your own totes. Repurpose an old, but still strong bed sheet. There are free patterns available all over the Internet.
- Reuse fabrics for art quilts and utility quilts or whatever you can think up. Quilters have been recycling for centuries – think scrap quilts. Denim jeans make great quilts for example, but don’t just stop at quilts, think lunch bags, pot holders, handbags. Take a denim pocket, add backing and batting to sit under flower pots to protect your countertops. Makes good use of denim and leftover scraps of batting and fabric. Or make a scrap memory quilt from favorite clothing.
- Use eco-friendly batting. Maybe Dream Green or Warm and Safe. They are eco-friendly and fire retardant.
- Join the 'Use What You Have' crowd and take 30 days in which you use only what is in your stash, do not buy, recycle or use the odds and ends around the house.
- Make something out of rag strips. Weave it, knit it, crochet or string piece into usable art or wall art or just something usable. Tote bags, rugs, mats, dog and cat beds, placemats, you'll think of something.
- Embellish your quilts with 'found' objects - found in nature and around the house. That orphaned button or maybe even an orphaned sock.
- Sew and quilt in the sunlight. Or if possible build your life around the sun - when its up, so are you, when it's down -- you could head for bed and reduce electric consumption.
- Cut down or eliminate the use of chemical fabric sprays and harmful or harsh or wasteful additives.
- Use eco-friendly dyes and dye techniques - Susan Shie advocates this in every one of her classes.
- Quilt and sew by hand instead of revving up a sewing machine.
- Make miniature quilts to use up scraps. They make welcome gifts. Or create journal or post card quilts -- again great for exchanging with other fabric artists or for self-promotion or donations to charities.
And one last thought -- make a quilt with a message, such as Linda Gass, whose quilt Sanitary? Speaks to the San Francisco Bay Area's concerns about pollution.
The copyright of the article 12 Ways Fabric Lovers Can Save the Planet in Quilting is owned by Dawn Goldsmith. Permission to republish 12 Ways Fabric Lovers Can Save the Planet in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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