Sustainability

It’s not just lip service: it’s important to us that we are as sustainable as possible as a business, and we’re always monitoring our environmental impact. We do our best to reduce, reuse and recycle everything we possibly can, and as a result, we currently only produce one bin bag for landfill every 2 weeks, and are always looking for ways to reduce this further.

Reuse before recycle

our packaging is strong on sustainability: new fabrics arrive at the shop in tough plastic packaging, which is great for protecting the fabric, but not so great for the environment. Rather than throw them away, we reuse larger bags to protect the rolls of fabric our customers have purchased in store, while smaller or tougher pieces are kept to pack up the orders we post out. Only after we’ve reused everything we possibly can, are the leftovers taken to be recycled.

We love remnants!

Our remnants basket is a great place to look for bargains for small upholstery craft or dressmaking projects, and also ticks the ‘sustainable’ box by finding homes for beautiful fabric pieces which are smaller but still useful. We parcel up short ends and ex display pieces for our remnants, both in our shops and online. Piece sizes vary so they can be quite large, and the price is always good. We also always have reduced roll stock to browse through in quantities that are too large to remnant.

Little bits and bobs

Fabric samples, miss-cuts and odds & ends of haberdashery such as ribbons, trims and odd buttons are reused in our colourful craft packs. They’re great for craft projects with children or even just for small sustainable projects. We carefully sort through and co-ordinate the packs by colour or theme. So keep an eye out for our seasonal packs throughout the year.

Recycled products

We are always on the lookout for products to stock that support our shop policy on sustainability. These include fabrics made from recycled fibres such as plastic bottles, to recycled threads from Gutermann. Occasionally we source vintage stock from auctions or old factories. This is a great way of finding some fabulous and unique designs while keeping our carbon footprint low. Plus we can offer these one-of-a-kind products at great prices to our customers!

Sustainability in production

Cotton is a thirsty, polluting product, but the Better Cotton Initiative is striving to transform cotton production from the ground up. Better Cotton is grown in a sustainable way that protects and restores the environment, while also improving farmers’ livelihoods. Sustainability is at the top of their agenda, and they feed the final product into the cotton supply chain. We now stock a growing range of fabrics containing BCI cotton, and are proud to help promote this initiative.

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