Author: allkat24

Self Evaluation

For this quarter’s SOS project: Sustainability in Textile Production and Clothing Design, I decided to put the theorizing I did about sustainability in fashion during last quarter into action. Over the past 10 weeks, I have had the opportunity to experience textile and clothing production in three different areas: a full scale wool mill, flax production, and upcycling as well as to continue to broaden my understanding of the science and mechanics behind each method.

My internship with Olympic Yarn and Fiber consisted of many great learning experiences for me. I began the quarter with little to no experience working mill equipment, but Lynn, the owner and operator of the mill has been so incredibly helpful in teaching me the ins and outs of working with machinery. I now understand each of the steps in the yarn production process thoroughly and am able to work the basics of most of the equipment without supervision. In addition to the mill work, I was able to learn about fiber dying (both natural & synthetics) as well as basic animal husbandry concepts for alpaca care. In my personal studies, I was able to begin to explore the energy usage of mills and how that relates to fossil fuel consumption. To supplement these activities I read materials including titles such as Fibre Production in South American Camelids and Other Fibre Animals, the Alpaca Handbook, a Mechanistic Model of Energy Consumption in Milling, etc.

At the beginning of the quarter, I sowed 0.5lbs of flaxseed (Agatha variety from Fibrevolution) in a 10 x 5 foot bed and have been tracking the growth since. My intention in growing the flax is to eventually produce a sample of linen. Over the course of the quarter I was able to track the growth and resource usage of cultivating fiber flax. It has been really helpful for me to see the fiber process through from plant to fabric. I have really only begun this process since my flax to linen project will be continuing into the summer, but I have used to time to read up on the crop through the Flax Council of Canada’s growing guide and have familiarized myself with the conditions necessary to help them thrive. Reading about flax has also helped me to learn about the crops impact on a larger scale.

Finally, the upcycling portion of my project proved to be the most rewarding so far. I was able to learn quite a lot about approaching design from a sustainability standpoint through reading books like Refashioned and Zero-waste Fashion Design in order to help me design my own completely upcycled pieces. The goal of this portion was to “slow down” the fashion process and practice mindfulness in every step of my design process, and I am incredibly happy with the finished results. I was able to successfully finished designing and altering a raw silk corset-ed vest as well as a sun dress inspired by antique Edwardian underdresses. For both of these pieces I used entirely recycled materials. I am incredibly pleased with the final products, both from a sustainability perspective and from an aesthetic one. I did not have much experience with upcycling in the past, at least upcycling for a purpose, so I’ve learned a lot about pattern drafting and how to use as much fabric as possible in order to save resources and money.

This quarter I chose to dive into three different areas that I had limited experience with previously and I am thrilled to look back and see how my understanding has broadened in such a short amount of tim

Final Flax Timeline: Spring Quarter

Because Spring Quarter is ending, I decided it would be a good idea to put the past 10 weeks’ growth into a chronological, visual timeline with notes about each week’s progress. The idea for this is to be able to combine it with this Summer’s progress in order to create a full timeline that covers the progress from seed to textile.

April 10 – 11: Flame weeding and seeding.

In order to prep the bed, I flame weeded the patch and then hand weeded the hard ones. I broadcasted the 0.5lb Fibrevolution ‘Agatha’ seeds over a 5′ x 10′ bed, covered the seeds, and did not irrigate.

April 20: Germination

9 days post-seeding, I saw the first results of germination. My broadcasting was definitely less accurate than I thought, because there was a bit of sparseness in planting.

May 5: Cotyledon stage

At this stage, all of the flax that was going to germinate had already done so. The cover remained a bit sparse but continued to look healthy. During this time frame we had received a steady amount of rain.

May 15: Parched and sad 🙁

Some of the flax began to look very nutrient deficient and burnt. This was after the first dry patch of the season so I quickly learned that flax does need watering if planted in sandy soil. I watered the plants well and applied a kelp spray to the crop.

May 17: Recovering flax

After a couple days of watering and allowing the foliar spray to take effect, the flax began to look much, much better.

May 22: Thriving!

After a week of consistent watering every two days and another foliar spray application, the flax began to really perk up and speed up in growth.

June 5: Beginning to bloom

After two weeks of regular watering and consistently warm weather, the flax really took off and began to bloom.

June 12: First flowers

After two months since sowing, the flax is reaching its full height and has begun flowering! Just a few more weeks and it should be ready for harvest

 

Weeks 9 & 10

Because I was out of town for weeks 9 & 10, I got about as much work done as I would have for one week, so I’ve condensed the two into one weekly post. The focus for these two weeks was all in finalizing my work for this quarter and beginning to look forward to the next.

I started the week by giving my final presentation for class on Tuesday. Overall, I am happy with the conclusions I came to and the final products of all of the different aspects of my project. It’s pretty easy to watch the quarter fly by and feel like you’re not actually accomplishing that much. So, I like to use the final presentation as a way to look back on all the work I have done over the past 10 weeks so that I can begin formulating final conclusions for my ePortfolio. The link to the presentation can be found here. I also used the week to go about reviewing my WordPress site.

After I finished the presentation, I dedicated the rest of my research to looking at flax processing and preparing for finishing off my flax to linen project over the summer. I learned that there are multiple different methods of processing the flax – some more labor intensive than others – that can impact the time it takes to create a finished product. In order to get an idea of the timeframe of my own flax cultivation and processing I mapped out the methods that I will use and the expected time to complete that which can be found here.

Flax: Next Steps

The weather is warming and my flax crop is beginning to take off! So, I’ve spent quite a lot of time this week looking into the next steps of fiber processing so that I can try and be as prepared as possible when I begin the harvest in about a month and a half.

The harvest process is as follows:

  • Harvest when stem starts to yellow and seeds turn brown
  • Best to pull flax up by the root – increases fiber length and prevents sap from leaking out of the cut stalk
  • Allowed to dry in open air for a few weeks

After drying:

  • Threshing – removing all seeds from stalks by crushing the seed pods
  • Retting – separating the xylem and phloem of the plant by breaking down the pectins through prolonged exposure to moisture
  • Curing – drying after retting for a few weeks
  • Scutching – scraping woody parts away from the fiber with a small, wooden knife
  • Heckling – combing the fibers through a bed of nails in order to further separate the outer shell and finish off the process

My plans:

I think it is going to be a little bit tricky to get the timing right in order to be able to complete the process in time for the end of summer quarter. But, if everything goes well I think I can orchestrate it to where it works out perfectly.

Earliest possible harvest date: July 10

Drying: until August 1

Threshing: done by August 2

Retting: tank retting, done by August 6

Curing: until August 22

Scutching & Heckling: August 23

Spinning & Weaving: August 24 – 27

Week 8

This past week, my main priority was to come to a halt with the research for a bit so that I could create my final presentation. I am out of town for week 10, so I had to give my presentation a week early. This required me to stop before my contract is officially over so that I could condense my work into a 10 – 15 slide powerpoint. As usual, it was a difficult feat to put all of the learning that I did this past quarter into a 10 minute presentation. But, I was able to successfully complete the presentation by the time the week was over!

Other than that, I did a lot of thinking on my final conclusions regarding business models based around upcycling and how that relates to what I read in Shaping Sustainable Fashion about underpricing encouraging overconsumption. The more I think about it, the more I really do believe that it is important to charge more than fast fashion companies for original designs. I do think that there is a middle ground, but I now understand trying to fight the fast fashion industry with the same methods it used to create the mess we’re in now is not the way to go about initiating a change in mentality when it comes to fashion.

Flax is thriving!

Other than that, I completed my internship with Olympic Yarn & Fiber (post here) and continued to monitor my flax. As far as the fiber farming goes, I am super happy to see that most of the flax is taking off now that the weather has warmed up quite a bit (regular watering also seems to have something to do with it.)  Now that the quarter is winding down, I plan to shift my sights to preparing for the flax harvest and processing!

Upcycling: Final Thoughts

As the quarter is winding down and I finish up my upcycling projects, I really feel like getting my hands dirty and doing some design work myself was an incredibly useful part of studying sustainability. I came into the quarter trying hard to create something that was drastically different while still cheap and hand-sewn. But, I found that to be a bit of a ridiculous request to make of myself and of the industry. I realized about halfway through that I had been approaching the idea of accessibility from the wrong angle. Yes, it’s true that currently the most radically sustainable garments on the market aren’t affordable to the average person, but there is still a lot of room for well-crafted, sustainable products that aren’t the price of a laptop computer but can still provide a living wage for the artist – and I believe upcycling is the key to it.

I struggled with feeling like I was spending so much time on small changes to garments that I really wanted to justify charging less than $100 for. But, what I failed to realize during that time was that small changes that increase a garments durability and individuality create something that a customer can wear for years and years. It’s true that most of the world cannot afford to pay $900 for a jacket just because it is made out of recycled materials however, it is also true that most of the world still pays hundreds of dollars a year in order to keep up with all 19 seasons of fashion while only wearing their new pieces a few times before they fall apart.

I believe that with only the slightest tweak in mindset, it is entirely accessible for the average citizen to have a few pieces that are one of a kind and durable but maybe 3 or 4 times the price in order to make it last for all 19 seasons, and ideally many more. The idea is to create pieces that are versatile, base pieces to be worn in both summer and winter (LINEN LINEN LINEN) and intricate outerwear that one will look forward to using to dress outfits up and to use as insolation during colder months.

After having the opportunity to work with these ideas hands on, even at a very small scale, I am realizing how possible it is to have a tailor/consumer relationship in the fashion world again. After reading that time and time again it has been proven that astronomically low prices cause overconsumption, I am much less convicted that the price really affects accessibility in as drastic a way as I originally believed. I think that changing the mindset of the fashion industry is not going to be an easy task, but with the rise of thrifting, small artists using natural dyes and materials, and small cottage industries popping up all over the country and gaining more and more attention, I believe that the process has already begun.

Olympic Yarn & Fiber: Week 8

Due to travels and scheduling conflicts, this weekend was sadly my last at Olympic Yarn & Fiber. So, we tried to pack it full of as much information as possible! We started off with Lynn showing me the basics of fiber sorting. It’s actually such an exact science that it can be incredibly difficult to do by eye since the micron count of fiber can vary so slightly. But, it’s still possible to get a good idea of the fiber grade that you are working with by both sight and feel.

Holding dark fiber over a light piece of paper.

Fiber “grade” describes the micron count of a piece of fiber – that makes up the width and weight. The lower the grade, the finer the fiber and, consequently, the yarn. I learned that it is important to sort your fibers to be within a couple grades of each other because our bodies can detect discrepancies in the materials we put on us, thus, causing discomfort. In order to “eye sort” the fiber, it is important to have both a black surface and a white surface. For black fiber, you hold it over a white piece of paper and stretch it out. The contrast between the black and the white makes it so that you can see each individual piece which allows you to get a sense of how it would be sorted.

Related image
Diagram of primary hairs. (source)

I learned most valuable animals have a pretty consistently low grade all over their bodies – this is especially true of alpacas since they have been bred with this in mind. Animals like goats and sheep often have “guard hairs” which are thicker, stronger and less present fibers that can bring down the quality of yarn unless they are taken out. Alpaca, however, no longer have guard hairs due to selective breeding and now simply have secondary hairs (finer) and primary hairs (what used to be guard hairs). The most high quality alpaca fiber will have primary and secondary hairs that are nearly indistinguishable.

After we sorted some fiber, we walked around the pastures and talked briefly about pasture management strategies. I learned that alfalfa is oftentimes the highest cost in keeping alpaca since they consume so much in a day, so keeping pastures as green as possible for as long as possible is a top priority. This year, Lynn has a sprinkler system running and will be applying compost tea in order to help keep the alpaca off of pre-purchased food as long as possible. I also learned that in order to help keep fiber quality as high as possible, some owners will often opt to rake up various different sticks and pinecones in order to prevent them from getting tangled in the animals’ hair.

Female alpaca herd.

I’m pretty sad to see my time with Olympic Yarn & Fiber end, but I am happy to say that I’ve come out of this internship with a ton of new knowledge regarding fiber milling and animal husbandry. At the beginning of the quarter, I began with only basic knowledge of how yarn mills ran. But now, I can identify every piece of equipment and have a fundamental understanding of how they work/how to operate them.

Upcycling: Edwardian-Inspired Underdress

As of today, I have finished the alterations on the dress that I have been upcycling! Here are some before/after photos:

To create this ‘improved’ sundress, I added a lace up feature to the front of the dress by creating hand-sewn grommets and using my hand spun wool for strings. Overall, this alteration didn’t cost me anything other than about 50 cents for the thread, but it did take about six hours to fully complete. After that main portion of the alteration was complete, I simply added lace from an old top that I cut up and trimmed the neckline. I also wanted to add a bit more ‘figure’ to the piece, so I decided to add an adjustable tie to the back in order to make the wasteline a bit more flattering. To do this, I just used an old strap of leather that I had from a show and laced it through the trim that I attached.

Overall, this piece took me about nine hours of labor to complete. I’ve decided to focus less on keeping the cost of pieces low after reading a portion of Shaping Sustainable Fashion that stated that underselling the price of clothing encourages over-consumption, which is a concept that I actually really do agree with. So, I have kind of recalibrated my ‘purpose’ of exploring the art of upcycling to simply be to elevate a piece of clothing that has been mass produced only to be worn a few times before ending up in landfill to an entirely unique, one of a kind, garment that will last seasons upon seasons of wear.

 

 

Olympic Yarn & Fiber: Week 7

This weekend at Olympic Yarn & Fiber was particularly full of learning opportunities. To start the day, Lynn and I drove up to Aberdeen to visit with the woman who does the yarn dyeing for her. Valerie of Fiberplay has a small operation run out of the upstairs of her home that she was kind enough to let me tour and take many pictures of.

Fiberplay’s at home dye studio.

I learned that because she works primarily with protein (animal) fibers, she dyes with acid-based dyes. To do this, she adds citric acid to the dyes that she buys. Her dyes are synthetic, however, she is sure to make sure that the dye water runs clear (meaning all the dye has been absorbed) before disposing of it. Her process is as follows:

Dyed yarn hanging to dry.

First, she adds the proper amount of dye to water in a crock pot. She then adds the fiber to the water and puts the heat on high for a few hours. After that, she puts the fiber in a steaming container and places it on top of a pot of boiling water in order to fix the dye to the fabric. After that she simply hangs the fiber to dry. She has a variety of methods that she employs to create variations and overdyes, but she only (understandably) explained the basics.

I am still not convinced that I like the idea of dying anything, especially when disposal isn’t regulated. But, it was nice to get a picture of how small business work to regulate their own sustainability in their art.

Yours truly working on the skeiner 😛

After visiting Fiberplay, we went back to the mill and worked on plying and skeining. I got to learn how to set up the spinning machine in order to ply two pieces of finished yarn together. The first thing that I learned was that to spin you set the spinner to a “Z” spin, meaning that it spins clockwise and to ply you set the spinner to an “S” spin, meaning it spins counter-clockwise. Other than knowing the settings of the spinner, there isn’t much work to be done other than watching to make sure that nothing breaks during the process.

Week 7

I was thrown into this week with a little scare regarding my flax which I detailed in a post that can be found here. Looking back, I really should have taken the time to grab a soil sample and get it tested so that I could understand exactly what went wrong, but I guess hindsight is 20/20. Once the flax is better established, it should be smooth sailing, so I am looking forward to being able to watch it continue to grow to maturity!

I also picked up a book titled Shaping Sustainable Fashion by Alison Gwilt and Timo Rissanen that has been awesome for comprehending other sustainable models. The book contains a series of case studies of other artists and designers that aim for sustainability in their business. Something that was helpful for me to understand is the way the authors described modernized, synthetic fabrics. They believe that synthetic does not equal evil. Instead, the intentions behind the creation of said synthetics were not based off of sustainability, rather profitability, and that is the true reason why the synthetics on the market have proven to be so damaging.

Similarly, the book goes to describe how to design process is responsible for a lot of the environmental and human rights violations because it is not flexible in its essence. Instead, the authors advocate for a holistic approach to design – one that uses sustainability as part of the design process. This was exciting for me to read because it is exactly the conclusion that I came to during my last ILC and is what I have been trying to implement in my own upcycling projects. One case study in particular resonated with me. It was titled “the Tailor’s Craft” and describes how a close personal relationship between the designer/craftsperson and the consumer is a great recipe for flexibility and accountability. The case study suggests a business where a tailor designs clothing specially for one customer at a time, consulting with them through out the process. The unique design and hand-sewn nature of the garment makes the price a bit steeper but allows for the garment to last longer, encouraging less over-consumption of textiles.

The concept of over-consumption due to price was also really helpful for me to read about. This combined with the tailoring model reminds me of something I read about in The Sustainable Fashion Company where a study showed that consumers are likely to spend more if they have the option to have a say in the design process. But, instead of online tweaking and pre-selected choices, with this model customers actually have many more options and overall a larger role to play.

I think without realizing it, this is the model I had been at least somewhat using while designer for myself. I would tweak a garment, use whatever resources were available, tweak it again if it didn’t suit my taste, and so on and so forth. This has allowed me to know exactly the amount of work and resources put into each of the alterations that I have made. I believe this could turn out to be a great alternative option for clothing in communities. There are, like with anything, hurdles to jump in order to educate potential customers, but I believe this is one of many ways to start moving away from the fast fashion industry.