organic cotton kids tshirts

My samples arrived! They are 100% organic cotton t shirts and are also fairtrade. The only drawback is the sizes only seem to go up to 18 months. Colourwise they do white, unbleached and red. Somehow I have managed to forget to order the red ones! They feel lovely and soft. No chemicals or pesticides are used on the cotton. I am interested to find out more on their fairtrade aspect though and how this works. I am really aware that I don't want to be printing tshirts for kids that are made by kids. Not right in my book.

The manufacturer is Mantis World and their website is http://www.matisworld.com/ The website on the label though is http://www.tenderlovingclothing.com/ but it doesn't seem to be working???

No chance to add any printing as yet. I have decided to stick with the littlechook name but go for FlockStars by Littlechook. I am thinking of having a second etsy shop for the vintage cushions and using the littlechook on for all the printed, organic cotton cushions, t shirts and tea towels. So far my designs have rabbits, squirrels and deer. I am about to add pigeons, woodpeckers and foxes.

That's it for now, off to eat chicken fajitas an drink pear cider for dinner.

Pulse 2008

Spent the day at Earls Court at the Pulse 2008 trade show. It has exhibitors covering jewellry, gifts, home furnishings, bath and body, cards etc. It also has a launchpad section for new designers. It was intersting wandering round and seeing the types of products on offer from a variety of companies. My particular favourites were thornback and peel and snowden flood. There were alot of real 'cutesy' stuff which is not me at all and I did think it would be more 'design' led.

Afterwards we zipped up to Kensington High Street and went to Wholefoods Market which is just unbeliveable. Floors and floors of organic, fairtrade, fresh - you name it they have got it. So tonight we feasted on loive bread, manchego cheese and quince paste and I have hidden away some white chocolate with poppy seeds. Mmmmm

littlechook goes fairtrade and organic

Currently I use non organic tea towels and I am finding the quality a bit hit and miss and I keep reading in papers such as The Guardian about the damage cotton growing does through the excessive use of pesticides and it worries me.

As a designer I expect to be able to charge a fair price for handmade handprinted items so why shouldn't the whole supply chain expect the same?. So today I decided to use only organic fabrics but also to ensure they are fairtrade so that the makers get a fair wage.

Google came up trumps and took me to http://www.organiccotton.biz/

I ordered samples and the very nice Phil replied to my email straightaway saying organic fairtrade cotton tea towels were available. Yay!

They are a family firm based in Powys and their site has some fantastic pictures of the cotton being grown and made into fabrics by the local people.

I have ordered sample fabrics in a range of colours and weights. The range is brilliant with calicos, denims etc and many are handwoven. I got nostaligic for my weaving days thinking about handlooms. I miss my weavebird!