Sustainable fashion & Organic Cotton

My apologies for such a rant in my last post about pollution. That was a topic I needed to get off my chest! I'll try to focus on more inspirational topics going forward. Every once in a while it's good to think about the heavier issues facing our lives too....

Now on to fashion! It's an interesting topic for me because although I have a degree in "fashion design" I have never considered myself to be a fashion designer - probably one of the main reasons which led me to working in the Outdoor Apparel industry for my career. I've always been very intimidated by the fashion world, its sophistication and obsession with beauty. Much of it conflicts with my own personal values, and issues with self esteem, body image etc...

Then along comes a designer who knocks me sideways with inspiration! This does not happen very often but when it does it hits hard. A co-worker had told me a bit about her because she could see how much I would love her work. However, I didn't give it much thought until I stumbled across her new book "Alabama Stitch Book" in the blogosphere, then her blog and website. The woman I'm speaking of is Natalie Chanin. Yes, I'm sure you have already heard about her and Alabama Chanin, her re-launched business.

Her love of all things made by hand, passion for sustainability in fashion, commitment to working with organic cotton and desire to keep her business small and local are the perfect combination of an ideal business to me. I can't wait to receive her new book! Amazon.ca in Canada gets new releases after they launch in the USA which is frustrating but expected for us folks in the North!

I've already read numerous glowing blog reviews of her new book "Alabama Stitch Book" and you can link to them here and here.

Another inspirational fabric designer I would like to highlight is Harmony of Harmony Art. She has made a commitment to only using Organic Cotton for her fabric designs. How inspiring to read about a woman who not only designs her own fabric prints, but also produces the finished fabric! It has been a long slow labor of love for her to build this business from the ground up. You can read about her challenges and triumphs in her blog "The Journey is the prize".

That's it for today I must run off to work now!

Cheers,
Jodi

Manufacturing and Global Pollution

How's that for a heavy blog title?! Thank you Bari for requesting more about my travels.... Because it was a work trip and not a personal holiday I've been thinking a great deal about what I should talk about. Should I make it funny and light hearted or talk about my biggest impression from the trip which was pollution?

First off I would like to say the company I work for is extremely progressive and ethical about their manufacturing policies. This is one of the reasons why I returned to work for them 3 years ago. You can link to them here (but I'm not going to type the name because they publish links to blogs talking about them every month to the entire organization). I really don't want my little craft blog highlighted to everyone I work with!! Please do check out the website, it has won all kinds of awards for online retailing.

This leads me to another related topic which is "The Story of Stuff". It is a video talking about the earth, our place on it, how we are killing our planet with our enormous demands for more "stuff" which is being manufactured in developing countries such as India and China. The video is very well done, and even though it is a heavy topic it doesn't lecture in such a heavy handed way as to make you flee! It's spoken in easy to understand English that even kids would understand. I couldn't stop thinking about this video while in China. We drove past factory after factory after factory and all I could see was the hazy silhouettes if large buildings though the thick smog of pollution. I do feel morally conflicted to be working in an industry that is still contributing to this global pollution.

I guess this is a contributing reason to my gravitation into the crafting community. I have a desire to return to live a more simple life where things are still made by hand....

I understand that manufacturing in developing countries helps the livelihoods of the impoverished people living there, but it needs to be done in a more responsible way. Organizations manufacturing in these countries need to put more pressure on factories to manufacture with less polluting practices.

I'm sorry this blog post turned into an environmental rant but this has been on my mind for the past week. Please check out "The Story of Stuff" and share it with your friends and family. It is a topic worth passing along.

I promise something more "crafty" in my next post! I've been working on some new embroidery projects.

Cheers, Jodi

Around the world in 20 days!

Hi,

I'm back from what feels like a whirlwind trip around the world. It wasn't really, but I did visit 6 different cities in India in 10 days as well as Hong Kong and Shanghai in the following 8! It was not a tourist holiday, I was working and visiting clothing factories for the company I work for. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to take such an interesting trip and get paid for it. We manufacture Organic cotton clothing in India and not only did we visit the factories which make our clothing, we also got to visit some of the local farms which grow the organic cotton. All in all a very inspiring trip.

Now it's time to get back to regular life again - I sure did miss reading all my usual blogs. It feels like so much has happened in the past 3 weeks. I didn't take nearly as many photos as I had hoped. I can pin this down to 2 reasons: the first being that I really wasn't prepared for traveling with a digital camera. Boy did I learn a lesson! Always travel with an extra battery and memory card. So many photo ops were missed due to my camera malfunctions!! The second reason being that most of the trip was seen through passenger windows as we whizzed by in a car! I'm not used to traveling this way, but it was necessary with the packed itinerary we had.

I also traveled with way too much stuff and ended up naming my suitcase the elephant! Did I really think I would have time to embroider?! That was very ambitious of me to think so. I found lots of inspiration though, but very little time.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip. It's so good to be home!

Done!

Well - not done really, but planned! I'm off to India and China for 3 weeks to visit apparel factories for my work (day job work that is). I need some crafty projects to keep me entertained while I'm gone so I've planned to dive back into embroidery.

My signed copy of Doodle Stitching arrived today and the other 3 embroidery books I ordered on Amazon were shipped yesterday! I only wish I could embroider on the plane. It's that darned "no scissors" rule that really gets in the way. I have 15 flights in total on this trip so there will be a lot of waiting around time....

I'll try and post some pictures while I'm away. I'll have a laptop with me and hopefully I'll be able to find a few good internet connections. Even though I'll be looking at Tee shirts and pants during the day, I'll be hunting for embroidery and colourful fabrics in my off work time!

Jicama Salad

I didn't do any Crafting this weekend so I thought I would share a recipe instead. This is a fast and easy Jicama salad and works as a great side dish with Mexican food. I served mine along side Chicken Enchiladas.

Jicamas are not the easiest thing to find in Vancouver but sometimes the Chinese veggie markets sell them, and the gourmet grocery stores usually always have them (at twice the cost)! I suspect they are more abundant in the United States.

Ingredients for Salad:

- 1 Jicima peeled and sliced into long strips
- 1 red sweet pepper sliced into long strips
- 1 orange sweet pepper sliced into long strips
- 1/2 red onion diced small
- 1 can of corn
- cilantro chopped fine

Ingredients for Dressing:

- 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
- 2 Tbsp. orange juice
- 1 Tbsp. grainy mustard
- juice of 1 lime

Mix all ingredients for the salad together in a large bow. Wisk together the Dressing ingredients and pour onto salad just before serving.

Enjoy!

Feelin' Stitchy Valentine

I've been so excited to use my new Crewel wool embroidery thread that I decided to stitch up these little hearts for my Valentine. I used wool from the charm packs I purchased from this lovely Etsy seller Feltpro. I stuffed them with cotton balls to make them a bit "plump" and that was it! I was pleased with how they turned out, but I need to practice my stitching skills. I'm rusty...

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Jodi xxx

So Crewel!

Sorry I just couldn't resist the pun! This Crewel embroidery thread was waiting for me in the mailbox when I arrived home today. I'm bursting with excitement over this! I've been wanting to get back into embroidery and was totally inspired when I discovered Aimee Rae's book Doodle Stitching. This is exactly the style of embroidery I love so much. I have to travel over seas for work in March and I think this will be the perfect project to take along for those long boring nights in hotels.

The thread is from Renaissance Dyes in France. The colours are gorgeous and earthy, all done with natural plant based dyes & it's 100% merino wool. The quality is excellent and their shipping is fast and reasonable, considering it is coming from Europe.

Now I just need to find a nice linen fabric to embroider onto!