Fabulous Recycled Fabric Paper from Soolip

This week in Fabulous Fabrics, I’m venturing a little outside the normal to include a recycled fabric product that’s halfway between fabric and paper. On Kim Kight’s yummy fabric blog True Up, I saw this recycled paper/fabric hybrid from a company called Soolip. It’s a wallpaper weight paper made out of “recycled cotton rag that comes from unused off cuts of clothing from India’s garment district.” Kim speculates that it might be good for sewing projects as well as the gift wrap that Soolip suggests.

You can see all of the patterns here – but make sure you notice there’s a page two, navigation is in the upper right. Most of them come in additional colorways and you have to click through to see them. Each sheet is about 22×30, and they sell for $6 or you can get 3 sheets of the same pattern for $12.

Soolip says the material is produced “produced using fair trade partnerships,” but strangely there is no additional information on the website about this. However, I also don’t want to assume that just because it’s not certified, it’s not a valid claim. Certification of any kind, from organic to fair trade to the quality of a child care center, is a product that costs money. Not every business, whatever their ethical standards, can afford to pursue it – or they simply may choose not to.

What kinds of sewing projects can you do with wallpaper-type quasi-fabrics? Kim has a couple of suggestions in her post about Soolip. Anyone else have any ideas? (I know there are tons of crafty ideas where wallpaper is used as, well, paper – but since I’m trying to sneak this into the Fabulous Fabrics series, I have to at least make an effort!)

[Image from Soolip.]