Jump The Hedges T-Shirt - Part II - Making The Fabric 🏭

Jump The Hedges T-Shirt - Part II - Making The Fabric 🏭

Thank you for all the enthusiastic responses to Part I of this project! Part II is all about turning the yarn into fabric 🪢

Several fabric factories I contacted were either unwilling to work with small quantities, had limited information on workers rights or limited commitment to sustainability. I eventually managed to find a family led factory in northern Portugal that ticked all my boxes & were super enthusiastic about my ‘Farm to Garment’ project 🤩

After several months of discussions on fabric weight & finishing we eventually settled on developing a medium weight 210gsm cotton. My reference point for fabric weight was a vintage t-shirt I had picked up in Austin, Texas 20 years ago. I loved the fact that I could comfortably wear it all year round & the heavier weight fabric structure meant that it could be worn dressed up or down 🤠

I was keen to maintain the natural cotton colour of the yarn also so this along with the weight was another lengthy discussion on how to achieve this 🌱

The factory has two sites; one for knitting yarn into fabric & another site for finishing and dyeing fabric. I visited in August last year to understand the complete process & to see my fabric in person before it headed to the garment factory down the road 🚛

Knowing the full origin of your fabric is VERY unusual. This is mainly because there is no mandatory requirement to disclose this information but thankfully this is set to change over the next few years. A fabric might have been woven or knitted in a certain country but there is there is often little or no information available about the initial fibre; where exactly it was grown & by whom 👩‍🌾

Stay tuned for part III coming later this week 👀