Sunday, January 17, 2010

Sustainable - buttons?

Sustainable buttons - who knew? But there they are at my fabric store, ready for me to replace the not-so-great ones on the jacket I just bought. My fab friend and artist, Maggie, http://maggiestern.com/ms_people.html , will reuse the old ones for her creations and I can make a thoughtful choice for their replacements...or can I?

I chose handsome yet inexpensive cocoanut ones - but yikes! the fine print says to dry clean! So I chose a handsome yet inexpensive set of bamboo buttons instead and will be careful to turn the jacket inside-out when I wash it.

To be fair, my online research shows a great source for cocoanut buttons that does not specify dry-cleaning, just the inside-out rule. The site is a great resource for other thoughtful knitting and sewing work, too. http://www.nearseanaturals.com/index.php

The episode is a reminder of buyer-beware for green materials - even in buttons - and an opportunity: perhaps the Near Sea Naturals folks can become a resource for any museum's Historic Costuming program intersted in going green.

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