Author: allkat24

For this quarter’s SOS project: Sustainability in Textile Production and Clothing Design, I decided to put the theorizing of last quarter into action. Last quarter, I spent ten weeks researching the history and current practices of textile crafts in an attempt to get a better understanding of how to improve the current model. Over the past five 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 has really only just begun, largely due to the fact that my supervisor and I have both been out of town for two consecutive weekends. However, the two weekends that I have been able to intern at the mill and alpaca farm have been great learning experiences for me. I began the quarter with little to no experience working mill equipment, but Lynn 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 some of the more simple equipment without supervision. Over the next five weeks I am continuing to intern there, and hope to be able to expand my skills in the fiber mill even further. I am also starting to explore the energy usage of mills and how that relates to fossil fuel consumption, so I plan to continue to dive into that during the rest of the quarter. I have also read a good deal of Fibre Production in South American Camelids and Other Fibre Animals and have learned more about the different kinds of alpaca and how their health and the care given to them affects their wool production.

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, but currently the process is relatively hands off since there is not much work required to cultivate that particular crop. It has been really helpful for me to see the fiber process through from plant to fabric and to be able to track each of the resources used every step of the way. 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 has proven to be the most rewarding so far. I have spent the first five weeks of this quarter reading books like Refashioned and Zero-waste Fashion Design in order to help me design my own completely upcycled outfit. Last week, I successfully finished the first and main piece of my larger design; a raw silk corset-ed vest. I am incredibly pleased with the final product, both from a ‘work required’ 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 time. In the next five weeks, I hope to have a completed upcycled outfit, flax that is continuing to thrive, and to have learned the basic mechanics of all the fiber mill equipment as well as gained a better idea of how their energy usage affects sustainability in terms of its impact on the planet, the people who inhabit it, and if it is possible to make a steady income off of it. 

This past week has almost been entirely research based due to the fact that I was out of town and had to rely on books to keep me on task. It was a welcome change from the norm, though, because I was able to really dive into energy consumption and get an understanding of how much mills use and what that means converted into fossil fuels.

Unfortunately, what I found was a bit discouraging. I have definitely come to the realization that the only way to create affordable and ethically made products for the demand that the market currently sees is to mill – preferably milling on a small scale. What I found about the amount of fuel it takes to run a mill, however, was a bit staggering. I kept reading that fiber mills consumed huge levels of energy, but my understanding of how energy works was limited. Luckily, while researching, I found an article titled “What Is the Energy Profile of the Textile Industry?” that put the information into layman’s terms for me. What I found is that nearly all energy is created using fossil fuels, whether that is to create heat in order to power thermal energy or to convert straight into electricity.

This new information inspired me to look at mills that use alternative forms of energy. I began wondering if there are any solar powered fiber mills, and lo and behold! I found a solar powered mill for alpaca fiber called Shenandoah Fiber. This mill is located in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, which, happens to be where I grew up and where I am visiting at the end of the month for a family wedding. So, I am planning to get in touch with the owners to try and schedule a tour. Before then, I’d also like to try and get a basic understanding of how solar-powered facilities operate.

Aside from my research into energy consumption, I also completed my silk vest! Since this is the main piece, it has been by far the most detailed and time consuming. I’m hoping to have purchased the next two garments within the week and begun the final steps of the construction process so that I can style and photograph the finished look in time for week 10.

 

This week I was finally able to sit down and complete some of the research portion of my contract now that all of the logistics are sorted and the quarter is in full swing. I’ve been reading “The Responsible Fashion Company” by Francesca Romano Rinaldi and Salvo Testa and it has proved to be super useful from a business point of view. The beginning of the book is entirely dedicated to economic ideas that also incorporate social and environmental concerns. It’s been really refreshing to be able to read a book that is pretty academic in nature but also focuses on things other than science and profit. In fact, one of my favorite concepts of the book so far is that the authors consider fostering the wellbeing of society and the planet as part of the “net income” of an enterprise, which I think is incredibly inspiring. It’s been helpful to me to be able to see all of the ideas that I’ve had about how a business should be run put into actual academic models and I’m looking forward to continuing to be inspired by them as I explore different ways to create beautiful clothing.

I also began to look at more ‘high end’ fashion and how it can be made sustainably on a small scale. I explored this through reading the book “Refashioned” which features a few high fashion designers that created their pieces through completely repurposed materials. The book didn’t cover how expensive these upcycled pieces end up being – which doesn’t quite make sense to me because if they are using discarded items from ‘the 99%’ and only marketing to ‘the 1%’ how much materials are they really saving, and is it really truly sustainable on all levels? Even so, I began playing on this idea by adding elements to my upcycled design that aren’t necessarily integral to the design but are detailing that add the extra artistry that allows for a higher price.

I am out of town this week and Lynn will be out of town the next, so I have a bit of a break from my internship with Olympic Yarn and Fiber. I’m sad that I won’t be back next week, but I plan to use the extra time to begin reading up on mill equipment and how it relates to energy consumption and sustainability.

This week all of the pieces of my project started getting moving. I’m actually pretty shocked at how quickly everything started to get moving and am happy with how much progress I was able to make in only a week’s time.

At the beginning of the week, I was able to prep my 5’x10′ bed and get the flax seeds into the ground. I originally used the flame weeder to try to eradicate the weeds, but I quickly realized that it was an unnecessary use of propane. In my case, I could easily pull up all the weeds on such a small plot of land, and I have a hunch that large scale flax growing could benefit easily from simply tarp-ing the fields before sowing. Since flax can be grown like you would a cover crop, it really doesn’t require that much weed management other than in the first few days of germination – it will eventually crowd all the weeds out. I also found that I was right to not plan for irrigation in this climate. It has rained quite a lot more than the 1″ per week that flax needs for germination, so no extra water usage was necessary. The seeds are going to take roughly 10 days to germinate, so I am keeping a close eye on the bed during that time period to make sure everything goes smoothly.

I also made a great deal of progress on my upcycling project. I successfully used the textile I have available to me to alter the silk vest in a way that I believe makes it much more aesthetically appealing and flattering. I don’t have a sewing machine with me here in Washington state, but even with hand-sewing, I’m finding that it really doesn’t take too much work to change a garment pretty radically. An interesting aspect of upcycling I’ve come to realize in the past week is that there are different levels of intricacy that you can achieve, just like with any other form of art. I’ve gotten a bit sidetracked with embroidering the back, which, if I were doing this as a business endeavor, would jack up the price of the garment. But, the more simple alterations I’ve made haven’t required too much labor or any extra money at all. This gave me an idea of how I plan to analyze my upcycled pieces. When I am finished with all the pieces that I am able to accomplish over the quarter, instead of estimating a price for the entire garment, I am going to estimate the price for each of the alterations done and what the impact of resources used adds up to.

The final activity for this week was my internship at Olympic Yarn and Fiber. I’ve already detailed the activities that I was able to take part in here. But, aside from having lots of fun learning how to use expensive textile equipment, I realized that I actually don’t have any clue about the resources that go into using the different pieces of equipment that create products at such a fast rate. It struck me that for literally each step of the process, there is a separate, huge machine to complete the task. I don’t actually know very much about energy usage and how that impacts sustainability in production processes, so my goal for next week (and probably the following weeks) is to get a more solid understanding of each of the pieces of equipment that I encounter.