Weekend Review: Fibershed

 

Fibershed
Rebecca Burgess & Courtney White
White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, c2019
281 p.

I picked up this book at my library and read it over one day. It was fascinating! Written by the founder of the Fibershed movement, it explains what a Fibershed is, and how it works, explaining along the way about sustainable agriculture, the false promise of synthetic fibres, and how a regional system of production helps fight fast fashion, climate change and precarious industries. 

So what is a Fibershed? It's a place-based textile system, as she says in the introduction:

Similar to a local watershed or a foodshed, a fibershed is focused on the source of the raw material, the transparency with which it is converted into clothing, and the connectivity among all parts, from soil to skin and back to soil... It is place-based textile sovereignty, which aims to include rather than exclude all the people, plants, animals, and cultural practices that compose and define a specific geography.

She introduces us to her own background, and the organization itself. She talks about natural dyeing, and her journey to farming her own indigo as well as other natural dyers in the area (really fascinating!) There are also featured farmers who raise specific breeds of sheep that are best for the microclimate their farm is in;  and a cotton farmer, Sally Fox, who breeds and grows naturally coloured cotton -- did you know that cotton grows in colours other than white? I didn't! 

There is talk about local mills (few and far between), how growing different kinds of fiber crops like flax, hemp or even nettle can work as regenerative agriculture and increase the ability of the soil to sequester carbon -- a very in depth and illuminating chapter that digs into the facts and felt really outside my knowledge and experience. From animal fibres to plant fibres, from the growers to the processors, to dyers, weavers, knitters, and sewists, she moves from the source to the end product and shows how and why it's important.

And then shares a bit about the organization and how it works with other groups interested in the same things, and how this might be replicated (they even have an affiliate system).

It's a great read, illuminating and inspiring. I felt hopeful when I was done, and very intrigued by all the information about local producers in her Fibershed, leading me to wonder about my own region. Fortunately for me, there is an affiliate Fibreshed group in my area, the Upper Canada Fibreshed! 

If this kind of thing interests you, be sure to give this book and their website a look. It's encouraging and brings up a wide range of subjects all connected to a new Textile Economy. 

Weekend Review: Embellishments A-Z

If you are currently one of the many people staying home, and finding more time for sewing, maybe you're starting to think about projects that take a little more time or effort. If so, I have some ideas for extra details and embellishments that you might be interested in exploring, all found on my bookshelf.

I do have quite a few sewing and textile art books in my collection, and this month I will share some of the interesting ideas from these books. Maybe I'll even be inspired to use some myself ;)

Embellishments A-Z / Stephanie Valley
Newton, CT: Taunton Press, c1999.
168 p.

I'll start with this small coil bound book. It's part of a larger series by the Taunton Press, and has lots of interesting ideas in it. The techniques can be used for textile art, for quilting, and also for preparing personalized details in your garment sewing. There is a wide variety shown in this book, more than you'd expect for its size. 

The book is laid out in sections, with different techniques described in each. I'm particularly fond of things like bias binding and piping, so was pleased to see mention of them -- the only technique I hadn't seen before was shirred piping, when the casing for your piping is gathered up around the cord, giving it quite a decorative appearance. 

I also like the illustrations and suggestions for using basic stitching to great advantage, particularly in the couching and decorative machine stitching sections. I can see using these to decorate a panel of a garment before putting a piece together. 

In the section on machine embroidery, she also demonstrates bobbin work, which is using heavier decorative threads in the bobbin and stitching from the wrong side, essentially. And there is also information about the cable stitch, a raised, looped stitch made from setting your tension differently and using decorative threads. 

There are also ideas for fancier fabric manipulation -- the chapter on velvet is particularly fascinating. While I've seen velvet embossed with rubber stamps previously (she does go over this also) the part I found clever was using simple household items to create great effects. The velvet below has been embossed using a wire rack, but it looks fabulous. 

There are other ways to manipulate fabrics, like sewing all kinds of tucks -- pintucks, crossed tucks, etc -- an effect I really like. You might also want to slice and reassemble fabric using weaving techniques. I've tried a few of these kinds of projects when working on textile arts, but never thought about using them to create fabrics to use for clothing. It's giving me some ideas.

In each chapter, the projects move from easy to challenging, and are clearly marked as to their difficulty levels. There are many, many clear photographs of each technique, and clearly explained steps for each. 

If you're looking for a way to add an extra element of pizzazz to your projects, this is a good basic guide to some new decorative ideas. I would recommend it to anyone interested in adding something truly individual to a project or two. 

Instant Sewing!

I picked up this funny little book at the thrift store this week, published in 1968.

It's very concerned with time-saving, with convenience and speed.

As I looked through it, I realized it's just focusing on the way most of us sew today; not too complicated, use one pattern to get used to it and have fewer alterations, along with giving various tips on the easiest ways to add to or reduce a pattern, or accomplish basic techniques. It's really a booklet, only 116 p. at paperback size, and an encouragement on the final page to order more as prizes for your clubs!

But it made me think -- do I want to instant gratification with my sewing? Or do I want longer projects that take some time and are made with extra details?

The Love to Sew podcast just recently had a show on the topic of Speedy Sewing.

I agree with them that sometimes it's just fun to choose an easier pattern and sew it up without many issues,  and have something new to wear right away. But if that's ALL we do, we are setting up our own little sweatshop and producing clothes at a rapid rate that we don't need or wear.

It's very difficult to figure out where you land on this continuum.

I'm a slow sewer. Not in the sense of a careful, always environmentally aware one, but literally a slow sewer. It takes me a long time to make things. I watch the Great British Sewing Bee and think, cripes, there is no way I'd even finish a single item on that show! I just move slowly. So I like to find tips and tricks to streamline and speed up the sewing process, so that I can hit regular speed on mine!

If I seem to have a lot of finished projects, it's just because I have spent a lot of time sewing. I see some sewing bloggers who can cut out a dress one night and be wearing it by the next night. Not generally the case for me. And yet, if I have a project that takes TOO long, that has too many details that will take me longer than even my usual, I get a bit sick of that project.

So I have to find a balance. Not to want instant gratification with my own fast fashion factory in my basement, but to find things I can manage to make in the time that I have. Whew. I've just accepted that I move slowly in most things, and can't change my default speed very easily.

What about you? Do you find that you move quickly or slowly in general? Does this show up in your sewing habits as well? And do you have an opinion on "Instant Sewing" in general?