T-shirts and the evils of rayon

This weekend I absolutely forced myself to sew up some t-shirts. I've had this pile of knits from fabric.com sitting on the floor for a few months, now transformed into six new t-shirts. They were a combination of organic cotton, "bamboo", rayon, and conventional cotton.

Whenever I sew with rayon knits I remember how much I love working with them, usually I shop around to see if I can replace what I've just used. In googling around this weekend I happened to come across a posting on one of my all time favorite blogs fashion-incubator concerning bamboo and the controversy in labeling that type of fiber. This led me down the path to researching deeper into rayon in general and I was a bit disturbed by what I found.

In a very small nutshell:

• bamboo is rayon
• the cellulose that rayon is produced from comes from plants that are likely grown organically
• making rayon is an extremely toxic process that produces undesirable waste products
• there are various methods of making rayon (cellulose fabrics), some more toxic then others
• some rayon has lead residue in it

Gosh, rayon... I'm not feeling so hot about it now. I'll enjoy what I have remaining in my stash but I don't think I'll be purchasing any more. It's not that I'm trying to prove a point or trying to play the I'm more green then you game. If anything I'm just offended, especially by the bamboo marketing strategy and greenwashing in general.

Does this go for all cellulose based fabrics? Acetate too? I think it might.... for now. Once my stash is used up then I'll revisit need plus want divided by guilt and see how the numbers look.

Besides that... I'm sewing linen pants! I haven't worked with linen all that much and considering these new developments I might be seeking out more linen. I'll see how the pants sew up and let you know.

This weeks video is all about t-shirts of course, I also show off my awesome new Italian ski jacket and the fabric for those linen pants. I have to apologize, I forgot to turn off the auto focus on the camera so you'll notice it keeps popping the focus but not enough to make anyone dizzy (I promise). I figured it was better to keep it spontaneous then re shoot.

Direct Link