Material Choices

Now that my swapshop organising is well on its way, its time for me to start making choices about materials and figuring out what I need to keep an eye on to keep the product as responsible as possible. I have been doing a lot of reading over the past few months and though "sustainability" is an extremely complex issue the points I am putting down below are some that i feel i will be able to have some sort of control over.

Best Practice:

Im going to make choices while making the product that cause the least possible impact. Not all processes or chemical processes can be completely avoided, but environmental impact can be reduced by making responsible choices.

What I'm going to try to focus on is:

- minimizing the number of processing steps

- Choosing 'clean' processing chemicals where possible (minimizing overall lifecycle risk)

- minimizing energy and water consumption

- minimizing waste production and carefully managing waste streams.

What fabric will I be using?

I will be using left over fabric from the brand hidden harmony in combination with organic cotton.

Weaves or knits?

Overall the environmental impact of weaving is higher than that of knitting because of the use of size. (Sizing agents are applied to the warp to prevent breakage during weaving and need to be completely removed before further processing. This often happens with large amounts of water and the addition of process chemicals)

Best practice in yarn and fabric manufacture include the following:

The points given below are not really in my hands, however I will be visiting a production unit in the next couple of days and will find out how the fabric is being produced and keep the following in mind. I will then make the best possible choice of fabric.

- Use readily biodegradeable lubricants while spinning

- Use water soluble and biodegradeable lubricants instead of mineral oils while knitting.

- Avoid woven fabrics where PCPs have been added as a size preservative

- Substitute recyclable sizing agents for natural starches .

- Check with suppliers that recyclable size is recovered and re-used.

Final processing of fabric:

The final processing of fabric is known as finishing and includes preparation for fabric to be dyed and or printed, dyeing and printing and any specialist fabric finishes like crinkle free treatments etc.

Finishing is the chief cause of environmental impact in the production phase and it is therefore very important that well informed decisions are made.

Bleaching:

Most natural fabrics have an off white colour and therefore bleaching is necessary to produce white fabrics and those that will be dyed and printed to pale colours. Manufactured fabrics are also bleached as it enhances colour brilliance.

I am personally not a fan of extremely white fabrics and I think my aesthetic would work perfectly fine if I use unbleached fabrics and I am therefore deciding to do so. Also Bleaching undermines the fiber strength and thus the durability of the textile product, which is a definite extra motivation to use unbleached fabrics where ever possible.

Dyeing:

Natural dyes, made from plants,animals and shells provide important alternatives to petro-chemical based dyes, and if they are harvested carefully can offer environmental and social benefits including a low carbon footprint and valuable employment for rural communities.

With my previous client we decided to use eco-friendly dyes over natural dyes. We did this because natural dyes do not come with disadvantages:

- Natural dyes are dependent on chemicals to fix the dye to the fabric.

- Natural dyes are suitable for colouring natural fibers only and have no inbuilt affiliation to fiber and therefore need fixing agents (mordants)

- Mordants are commonly though not exclusively polluting heavy metals. (chromium and tin)

- It is difficult to use natural dyes on industrial scale.

-Natural dyes have large variations in colour tone because of the quality differences of different provenances of the dye plant.

- Require longer slower dye treatments to achieve good colour - making the process more expensive.

Yet their higher cost, subtle colour variations and greater demands on time means that it has a particular cachet and quality that works well in small scale or specialist production.

Since I am working on my own now, natural dyes seem to be an option that could work well for me as i have both better knowledge and access to them than to "eco-friendly" dyes. The weather however can be a disadvantage and I need to keep that in mind.

Printing:

In the project i was working on previously, i was working with prints. However due to time constraints and personal ideas on aesthetic i have decided not to work with prints.

*Resource: Sustainable fashion and textiles, Design journeys by Kate Fletcher.