If you’ve been following my facebook page you’ll know what’s coming up this year at Cloth Books for Baby.
The materials I’ve used for the past two years to make my cloth books include:
- cotton or polyester fabric,
- cotton thread,
- polyester fleece padding,
- polyester satin ribbon,
- and wood rings.
So a mix of natural and man-made fibres. But in 2016 I’ll be replacing the new polyester fibres (invented in 1941 apparently) with centuries-old and 100% natural silk, bamboo and cotton. Polyester ribbon will be replaced by silk ribbon, and polyester padding will be replaced by 50/50 cotton/bamboo padding.
Why?
A few reasons.
Here’s one I posted earlier this month on Facebook:
Manufacturers should be responsible for the end life of what they produce.
This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Like some might day dream about what they would do if they won the lotto, I day dream about the practicalities of this policy that I would introduce if I were “king for a day”.
This fictitional policy is also one of the reasons why, in 2016, I will be switching over to all natural material cloth books that are entirely compostable and worm-farm friendly.
By changing to all-natural materials I’ll be able to compost all my sewing scraps, which means less waste in our bins each week. I’m also looking into natural/biodegradable packaging so there will be no waste at the customer’s end either.
And all-natural, biodegradable materials means that, after baby’s cloth book has been loved and cuddled and chewed and washed and loved some more, when baby is no longer a baby, cloth books can, in theory, be composted.
Out with the new and in with the old.
Wishing you a happy and waste-free new year!
