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Eco-fabrics for your home

Home » Magazine » Good, issue 12 » Eco-fabrics for your home

By The Goodies

Where to find ethical textiles for your home

Pic thanks to www.goodyarn.co.nz

What is the most environmentally friendly option for curtain fabric? The only fabrics I have been shown are polyester.

Leigh Bradbury-Taylor

There are so many beautiful, natural furnishing textiles available in New Zealand that your next problem will be choosing just one! Great fabrics for drapery are hemp, organic cotton, linen and jute, or blends of these fibres. The suppliers listed (see box, below) stock stunning fabrics from textile designers who work with eco-friendly basecloths—my picks are Mod Green Pod, Leanne Culy, Bird Textiles and Ink & Spindle. All will send free fabric swatches on request; Bolt of Cloth will also provide a free estimate based on your window size, and has an excellent reference guide on its website.

If you’re after a bargain, Auckland’s Ab Fabrics stocks European end-of-line fabrics and seconds. Linen, made from flax, is also quite affordable—from about $20 a metre. It’s a little on the plain side, but you could add colour with a wide border of patterned fabric, or invest in smaller lengths of designer fabrics and scatter your room with beautiful cushions!

For lightweight fabrics like linen it’s essential to add an insulating layer of ‘bumf’ (like a thin duvet for your windows) between the curtain and lining. Even polyester curtains lined with bumf are a relatively eco-friendly choice, because your home will better retain heat in winter.

It’s important to use at least one layer of lining for all curtains, for insulation, extra fullness and fade-protection. Greenfields Trading imports organic, fair trade cotton from $14 a metre—its unbleached calico would make a good lining. Thermal or blackout linings are much less natural, but because of their insulating qualities they’re also an eco-friendly choice.

Lining will shield your fabric from the sun, but natural fibres need extra protection: if possible, extend the rail so your curtains sit in front of the wall when open.

ethical textiles

Comments

Frank McColl
 
Mon May 02, 2011 @ 04:56 PM
Any ideas where I could source bumf?
Rebekah
 
Wed May 04, 2011 @ 01:00 PM
Hi Frank, try your local curtain fabric store - Martha's Furnishing Fabrics list bumf for sale on their website, but other stores should have it as well.
Last Edit: May 04, 2011 @ 01:09PM by Rebekah 
Janette
www.verdantdesign.co.nz
 
Sun May 15, 2011 @ 05:46 PM

A much healthier alternative to 'Thermal or Blackout lining' is a woven blackout lining and/or the use of bumf.  Traditional 'thermal linings and the coatings on your typical ready-mades are unhealthy for you and your home.  They are made by coating fabric with a paint-like acrylic, which omits harmful VOCs especially when the sun hits it.  Just smell the chemicals coming off a new roll of the stuff or even when you open a pack of readymades and you will see what I mean.  Thermals, also do not 'breath' and you get that typical growth of mould and mildew on the back of your curtains, creating another health hazard in your home.  Currently there are a few woven blackouts on the NZ market, but only one is Oeko-Tex certified meaning the manufacturer has an environmental management programme. Check out verdantdesign.co.nz for more info.

MirjamS
www.mindpopsicles.blogspot.com
 
Tue November 01, 2011 @ 02:12 PM
Great read. I'm only missing www.hemptech.co.nz in this equation! They are a NZ firm based in Auckland and provide wonderful linen and hemp material that has a high fade resistant factor.

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