Conventional Cotton

My journey with autism in my family has taught me to look at earth conservation in a new light. I believe that many diseases, including autism, are brought upon us in part by our environment, or rather, our lack of care for it.

I was playing with google one day and I came up with the stats that only 5% of all crops are cotton, yet 25% of all pesticides/fertilizers are used to produce commercial cotton. Also that the production of three conventional cotton t shirts require the use of one whole pound of pesticides and fertilizers. I am not bothering to cite sources on this one because I found these same stats on MULTIPLE sites.

In my little family we are doing some small things to try to combat this issue. First of all, we shop thrift stores first. Thrift stores have more variety and they are easier on our budget. More importantly, buying second hand prevents use of more harmful chemicals for the creation of a new outfit, and that fact alone gives us so much pride in our thrift store purchases! We do not have any sources of organic clothing in our area as far as our knowledge goes, which is really very sad. If anyone knows of one, or of a good online source, do tell.

Recycling pre loved fabrics is something that I do in my studio and I am very grateful for my family's support in this. I make clothing items out of old worn out fabrics. Recently I made myself a long sleeved t shirt out of afew of my husband's old t shirts that would have gone in the trash. I find using preexisting fabrics to create new fashions very exciting because, once again, reusing fabric prevents the use of harmful chemicals. Some of my creations I post in my etsy shop.