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Natural Fibres & Fabrics
Off to Leeds Kirkgate Market, Covered Market City Center, to buy some woolen fabric.
I used to go to Jacks, a small stall, selling all types of fabric, including end of line remnants of Yorkshire made wooden fabric. Not any more. They have closed.
Other fabric stalls include B&M who do a great range which you can preview via their Facebook page. handy.
BUT they no longer sell wool.
So I was extremely glad to see Fletchers Fabrics were selling lovely fine wool at the bargain price of £5 a meter.
I stocked up on supplies and as usual I’ve got rather too much.
However I have made myself a pair of very lovely pants.
Here is an introduction to why you might want to, and how you can, start sewing plastic free. Plus all my sewing projects to date. Read More
Weighing My Fabric
I am recording my fabric use for sewing differently. In the past I weighed finished article of clothing. However this did not take into account all the offcuts. Which are considerable.
So when sewing am now weighing the fabric piece before I start and counting the whole.
This is because I keep a track of all the fabric are use. Or rather all the fibres I use both natural and synthetic. Why? Because I want to see if I can live within my global share.
My Global Share
As an experiment I have pledged to use no more than my fair global share of fibres Whats a global share? Currently the global consumption of clothing works out (roughly) at 11.74 kg per person of which 3.8 kg is natural fibres. As I don’t like synthetics I try to stick to 3.8 kg of natural fibres.
Why not just use 11 .74 kg of natural fibres?
Fabric production like everything has an environmental impact and carbon footprint, a rather large one actually. I would argue that it is not sustainable for us all to have 11.74 kg of natural fibres a year. This is one of the promoted benefits of plastic, that it takes the pressure off natural resources.
Synthetic fabrics mean less land grab to grow cotton. But synthetic fabrics like any other plastic are massively polluting.
So if we cannot produce more, we have to consume less. This is how the equation works for me:
We cannot exceed current levels of production:
We cannot expect others to want less than we have:
We cannot swamp the market with synthetics:
Therefore I have to live with my global share of natural fibres.
But can it be done?
Cautious reply? Maybe
You can see a break down of my fabric use here
Van Insulation
I have no idea how this works under carpet because I don’t do carpet but it might be useful for those of you looking for a sustainable underlay. However I can tell you that so far it has done an excellent job of insulating our van
When converting our empty steel box of a van into a cosy camper home we had to line it with some form of installation.
After some research I thought I would use wool.
MULTI RICH 56 – Recycled felt underlay made from leftover carpet fibres
Two downsides…on closer inspections I saw what appeared to be some synthetic fibres in there. On asking I was told that it was guaranteed 80% wool but some synthetics did slip in.
Anyway 2 years ago I glued it to the van where it still remains. It does indeed keep the van warm and or cool. So far so good.
It now needs to be counted as part of my fair share fabric I guess?
1588 grams per m2 15m2 on a roll is a whopping 23.83 kg. Obviously that is to be devided between natural and synthetic and the 2 of us using the van.
Comes in at 11.92
At 80% wool that 9.53 natural fibres. Yikes!
The next question is how do I count it as part of my fair share fabrics. As it is incorporated into the van I suppose I would have to do divide the weight of the material over the years I use the van and if of course I sell the van on and it would no longer be my fabric.
N.B.
Lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x
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