Soil to Soil
Bristol Cloth has announced that its second run of yarn and fabric is now available to pre-order. Bristol Cloth 2nd Edition is a low impact locally produced textile, made from fabric which is safe to make, wear and give back to the ground at the end of its useful life cycle, providing nutrition to soil. The purpose of Bristol Cloth is to support fibre farming that rebuilds soil fertility and locks carbon back into the soil to reverse the effects of environment degradation.
The company is calling on designers and makers to buy Bristol Cloth fabric to create local non-toxic ‘soil-to-soil’ fashion: “We need to start re-thinking the actual cost of fashion for the sake of our planet. Bristol Cloth is made from the ground up. Revolutionising a model long abandoned to cheap financial gain by an industry which doesn’t care about the environment or people. Bristol Cloth is completely viable - financially, socially and environmentally - where others are not.”
Bristol Cloth is made with holistically farmed and biologically washed wool from Fernhill Farm, using carbon sequestering practices. Its lambswool yarn is naturally dyed with certified organic plant dyes by Botanical Inks and woven at the Bristol Weaving Mill, the first industrial loom to open in Bristol in nearly 100 years. The entire process is done without the use of toxic synthetic chemicals and is set mainly within a 15-mile radius of Bristol. The company says that its system is fully traceable and contributes to our local community and economy, with fair pay terms to all suppliers.
Products now available to buy include naturally dyed or undyed 4 ply knitting yarn and fabric by the half metre in 100% lambs wool in natural (unbleached/un-dyed) fleece colours of white and a dark brown, in a basket weave design with an organic plant-dyed mustard yellow colour stripe.
Bristol Cloth was featured in Selvedge Issue 84 Surface.
For more information and to purchase Bristol Cloth, visit www.bristolcloth.co.uk