This week is Fashion Revolution Week and there seems to be a lot more interest in it this year than last which is fantastic, people are being encouraged to ask brands "who made my clothes?" to encourage transparency in the garment industry. A lot of people who read this will make their own clothes so the question should be "Who made my fabric?"
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This is one of the main reasons I started sewing. I couldn't afford a wardrobe entirely made up of People Tree and Seasalt clothes, both are the only brands I buy new and have fantastic ethics records from fabric to manufacture, but I could afford organic cotton and second hand fabric. Most of my second hand fabric comes from other peoples stash clear outs, gifts or from the charity shops and new fabric almost always comes from The Organic Textile Company or Kitschy Coo.
I did find a new place to spend my money recently though...
While we were away in Islay during the Easter holidays we visited the Islay Woolen Mill which will now be my go to place for anything wooly!
I was in heaven. They use local wool to weave into gorgeous tweeds and tartans and have done work on fabric for films, including the Braveheart film tartan. The man who owns the mill, Gordon, moved from Yorkshire 40 years ago and restored the Islay Mill to it's former glory, and it really was glorious!
The fabric was £39/m which I thought was amazing value given that you can see every part of the process in the building and the fabric itself is fantastic quality, think Harris Tweed but smoother and less hairy!
So, who made your fabric?
There are various Fashion Revolution events happening in Glasgow and Edinburgh over the next few days, see them all here.
A really interesting post. I like visiting old working mills. We visited one in wales a few years ago.
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Interesting post Alison.
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