Where Does Your Fabric Come From?

I was working on the stack of bowl cozies yesterday when this video popped up in my YouTube feed. How timely:

After listening to the first half of it, I was about ready to give up sewing altogether. Am I being irresponsible with my hobby? Am I singlehandedly going to kill the planet by buying fabric from Walmart?

Interestingly, the video I watched before this was Nicole Sauce’s recap of her food forest installation last weekend. She emphasized how important it is not to allow perfect to become the enemy of good. By the end of this video, the Core Fabrics owners said the same thing. They noted that making one’s own clothes—stepping out of the fast fashion system—is already a step in the right direction. Perhaps it is just rationalization, but I’ll take it.

(Wrestling with this question when it comes to quilting cotton is a bit more difficult.)

The Core Fabrics owners also mentioned, at the end of this video, that H&M has a clothing recycling program. I had heard that before and forgotten about it. Apparently, H&M will also take fabric scraps. I am going to stop in at H&M in Spokane and ask. If they will take them, I’ll drop my my unusable garment fabric scraps off when I travel.

I don’t expect to be making clothing forever. I am not a slave to fashion for fashion’s sake. I want clothing that fits me well, doesn’t make me look like death warmed over, in practical pieces that coordinate nicely. I’m making them myself because I haven’t been able to find those items in stores. If anything, I tend to keep clothing long past its expiration date, as evidenced by the decades-old Liz Claiborne T-shirts I cannot bear to give up.

****************************

I knocked out seven bowl cozies yesterday.

Ginger picked out such pretty fall-themed fabrics for these. The bowl cozies will hold the other items she curated for the centerpieces. I’ll try to remember to take a picture next week.

I’m taking the Janome to Spokane with me for a checkup. I don’t think I knocked it out of time when I hit that pin a while back—the machine seems to be sewing fine—but it’s several months overdue for service and I want to keep it running in tip-top shape.

Our first concert practice is this afternoon. Two of the four pieces are ones I played last year and will only need some polishing. The other two will require practice. We’ll see how it goes.