In this episode, Lisa discusses the human cost of fast fashion. There is a high price to be paid for cheap clothing and other textiles. It is paid by the garment workers who are paid by the piece but never reaching a living wage. It’s paid for by the dyers, farmers, spinners and weavers who don’t have access to health care for occupational injuries and illnesses. What can we do about it?
Listen to this episode here or subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. OR watch on Vimeo or YouTube. You will find a couple of simple ways to support the supply chain and those who work to make your clothing.
It’s so important to reduce the amount of textile waste is going into the global landfill. It is alarming to see the amount of textile garbage. It is a symptom of our rampant consumerism in the effort to have the trendiest clothing. However that clothing is out of fashion the next week or it is made so poorly that it doesn’t last but a few wearings.
Reducing out waste by being mindful is perhaps the easiest thing we can do as we switch to a more sustainable wardrobe. We can take better care of our clothes. We can reuse cloth that we no longer want to wear. I offer several ideas for recycling and upcycling your clothing. We can make artful mends on our favorite pair of soft worn jeans that we can’t bear to part with.
Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcast. Or if you would rather watch, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel here.
Season 4 Episode 6 is all about the Integrity Index developed by Greta Egan. This index is a smorgasbord of a sort. There are 16 factors that you can use to pick the most important values to you and build your mindful wardrobe with these in mind. It makes sense to use this kind of system as you change your wardrobe over to one that is more sustainable. Of course there is a call to action!!
The Tour starts on July 1st. That’s just 9 days away. What’s the Tour de Fleece? Well it is a spinners event that runs the duration of the Tour de France. It was born probably over 10 years ago. I know I’ve hosted teams for at least 7 or 8 of those years. The premise is that you spin everyday that they tour is on. On the rest days, you can take the day off. And when the bicylcists are in the mountains you have a challenge day. Your challenge can be learning a new technique or maybe you spinning longer and farther than your usual day. The point is to have a goal in mind for this time.
What I know for sure is that every year that I commit to this event, what I am really committing to is me time. By spinning every day, you are spending time practicing your skills. And each time that I finish the tour, I am a better spinner. My goal this year is to make friends with my e-spinner. I have a Heavenly Handspinning e-spinner and it has a different kind of tensioning system. And it is not working for me. I have to change my spinning technique in order to get the yarn that I want. I need to do some research and reading and maybe some YouTube watching. And then I need to practice. I am looking over my stash and most of that is what I have for sale in the shop. So in the next 9 days I will be picking some colors and fibers to use.
At this time I have 3 people on my team. If you would like to join the team, just reply or comment to this post. You should also join our facebook group here. We can post photos, ask questions and just be part of a community. Let me know your goal for the tour as well.
Slow fashion is the opposite of fast fashion. It has arisen from the concerns about the planet and about concerns about wage equality and the equal treatment of people in all countries, not only as workers, but also as the end users of these products and concern about our climate. It started by a lot of people pivoting to buying organic clothes, when possible. And then people started looking at the idea of these organic sustainable fibers are going to be grown on a farm somewhere. Read the TranscriptListen to the podcastWatch the Video
Here are some new Chinook and Sparkly skeins. I’ve also added a mini skein pack for those who want to make a fun shawl out of minis. It can be used to make the mini meditation shawl designed by Kira Wharton. You can find the pattern here.
Toxins, Mutagens and Hormone Disrupters…. These are just a few consequences of buying and supporting the fast fashion industry. We just don’t know what has gone into making our clothing and household textiles. There aren’t studies about using know carcinogens in clothing against the biggest permeable organ in our bodies: our skin. We don’t have adequate labeling and these global textile industries just are not transparent.
In this episode, Lisa explores what fast fashion is and what the issues are with this overconsumption of textiles. She talks about what you can do to turn away from this consumerism and start to heal ourselves and our planet.
A new episode of the podcast dropped last Monday. I thought I would blog a little bit about it in case you missed it.
This new season is all about Slow, Climate Beneficial Fashion vs. Fast, polluting fashion. In this episode, I talk about the fibers that fabric is made from. I talk about the pros and cons of the fibers. Of course there is a call to action should you choose to take it.
You can listen to the episode here or subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
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Where to find us
We are located in Frederick MD. You can shop in person with a mask and lots of social distance! Or buy online and stop by to pick up…I’ll run your purchases out to you in your car.
If you are coming here, please enter Flying Goat Farm into WAZE. That app will reliably get you to our farm. Google Maps DOES NOT work!
