Fabulous Fabrics: Michael Miller Organics

Michael Miller Fabrics is co-sponsoring a Baby Bootie contest with Craft Magazine. I would love to see a green crafter win this with organic or recycled materials.

I do suspect there’s some kind of craft hive mind episode going on here, because I’ve planned to write about their organic fabric line this week – and just last week, Autumn posted here at Crafting A Green World about recycled handmade shoes. I fully intend to investigate this set of coincidences, but first let’s talk about Michael Miller Organics.

Michael Miller Fabrics launched its organic line at the beginning of the year. The sneak peek on their blog last fall included a shot of the supercute booties shown here. That blog post gave a snapshot of some of the challenges facing folks who want to bring organic cotton to market:

Did you know that organic cotton has to be grown for at least three years without chemical pesticides, defoliants, or fertilizers? It costs more because organic farms are more labor and management intensive. They’re also usually smaller and do not receive federal subsidies like conventional farming.

Luckily for us, they persevered and created a small collection of fabrics and a couple of trims in warm, natural tones. Included in the organic collection are one each of gingham, terry, fleece, sheeting, sherpa, a plain herringbone, the herringbone check shown above, felt, gingham bias trim, and gingham “ruffle rac.”

While it’s a small collection, it’s a big step forward to see organic fabrics for home crafting that are affordably priced. I’m not knocking the high-end organic cotton home decorating fabrics like those made by Mod Green Pod and Oliveira Textiles. Those companies make beautiful fabrics. It’s just nice to see the spectrum of fabrics filling out with choices for a variety of projects and budgets.

Michael Miller Organics fabrics and trim are available from J. Caroline.

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