So from last week’s post, you know that you want a durable, colorfast fabric that will be lovely to look at and wonderful to live with. What’s the best choice? I’m so glad you asked. You have basically two choices in fibers: natural (cotton, linen, wool, hemp, silk) or synthetic (polyester, acrylic, nylon, etc.). Many …
This week we’ll begin to talk about the fabric used in your sofa – which we (of course) think is a very complicated and important topic! One thing to remember is that there is much more fabric used in constructing an upholstered piece of furniture than just the decorative fabric that you see covering the piece – …
It looks like the plastic bottle is here to stay, despite publicity about bisphenol A and other chemicals that may leach into liquids inside the bottle. The amount of plastic used to make the bottles is so enormous that estimates of total amount of plastic used is staggering. Earth911.com says that over 2,456 million pounds …
I’m going to be taking a few weeks off, and thought I’d recycle some of our old posts. So if you think you’ve seen these before – you have. But the issues remain important and it doesn’t hurt to remind you. I’ve updated the topics a bit if necessary. Since the 1960s, the use of …
Nylon is a synthetic polymer called a polyamide because of the characteristic monomers of amides in the backbone chain. Polyamides are also naturally occurring – proteins such as wool and silk are also polyamides. We commonly see two basic types of nylon used in fabrics: nylon 6 and nylon 6,6: Nylon 6,6: Two different molecules …
With the increased interest in avoidance of certain chemicals and industrial products that are particularly harmful to our environment, it’s not surprising that manufacturers are becoming ingenious in pointing out attributes that play to this script. So we now see claims for “chrome free” leather, or for “eco friendly” leather. In last week’s post, I …
From last week’s blog post, we discussed how bio based plastics do indeed save energy during the production of the polymers, and produce fewer greenhouse gasses during the process. Yet right off the bat, it could be argued that carbon footprints may be an irrelevant measurement, because it has been established that plants grow more …
The first plastic garbage bag was invented by Harry Waslyk in 1950. 1950! Mr. Waslyk could not have predicted how much havoc his plastic child would wreck in a mere 62 years.[1] We’ve all seen the pictures of birds stomachs filled with plastic detritus and read about the Great Pacific Gyre, but I just read …
We love being outdoors. I’ve been told that the most popular outdoor activity in the U.S.A is picnicking. I would think barbeque must be a close second. So we love fabrics that we can use outdoors – you know the ones that resist fading, are stain resistant and can be cleaned with mild soap and water? They …
Fibers are divided into three main categories: Natural – like flax, wool, silk and cotton Manufactured – made from cellulose or protein Synthetic – made from synthetic chemicals The difference between “manufactured” and “synthetic” fibers is that the manufactured fibers are derived from naturally-occurring cellulose or protein, while synthetic fibers are not. And manufactured fibers …
OEcotextiles 