About
This sturdy fabric with a nubby texture is soft to the touch, but its hemp, linen and ramie framework makes it another classic workhorse and can take whatever you can dish out. A classic hand with timeless appeal. Great for upholstery, drapery, and clothes!
Eco Facts
Buy "bast" or other more eco-friendly fibers. Do look for organic textiles, but the certification is brand new, so don't expect to find much in the very near future. In the absence of a GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) fabric as a practical choice, pay attention to the fiber used in any textile you buy. Currently, conventionally raised cotton (versus organic cotton) and synthetic fibers (those made from petroleum) are the world's most popular fibers by far. They are also, by far, the very worst fabric choices you can make for the health of your family and the planet. When choosing a natural fiber, try to avoid buying anything made with conventional cotton. This may be hard at his date. But, if you have a choice, linen, hemp, bamboo, abaca, wool, or any other natural fiber are good additions to the world's textile choices, and much better eco choices than conventionally raised cotton. If you MUST choose a synthetic fiber, insist on recycled polyester, that is, at minimum, certified to the Global Recycled Standard, GRS.
Why avoid conventionally raised cotton? Currently cotton is the world's most popular natural fiber - accounting for 80% of all natural fibers used in the world - and the world's worst environmental and health choice. The cultivation of cotton is such a thorough environmental and health disaster as to be almost unbelievable. The cultivation of cotton requires inordinate amounts of herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides. Conventional cotton must be drenched with chemicals: it accounts for 25% of all the pesticides used globally**. And on average, in addition to this huge volume of pesticides, farmers apply seven times more chemical fertilizer on cotton crops than they do pesticides; and they use 10% of all herbicides used in the world. These chemicals pollute the groundwater, enter the food chain. Many of the chemicals used on cotton are listed among the most hazardous pollutants by the Environmental Protection Agency. Conventionally grown cotton is so full of pesticides that in California farmers can no longer legally use the leftover leaves and stems to feed their livestock. Cotton cultivation also demands vast quantities of water, resulting in soil salinization, aquifer depletion and desertification of large tracts of entire countries.
Although the cultivation of organic cotton largely solves the problems associated with the use of chemicals, organic cotton is still classified as one of the top “thirsty” crops by Oxfam, leading to the same problems of soil salinization, aquifer depletion and desertification***. But organic cotton is a better choice than conventional cotton. Do not buy anything made from conventionally raised cotton if you can possibly do this. Linen, bamboo, hemp and abaca are good additions to the world's fiber choices.
Fabric Name
Puget was named after Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean and part of the newly recognized Salish Sea. The United States Geological Survey defines Puget Sound as a bay with numerous channels and branches; more specifically, it's a fjord system of flooded glacial valleys. The term "Puget Sound" is used not just for the body of water but also for the Puget Sound region centered on the sound, including the cities of Seattle and Tacoma.
Care
In cool water and air, pre-shrunk; In hot, 10% shrinkage.
Uses
clothing, drapery, upholstery, anything!
Specifications
- abrasion test results: 40,000 Martindale
- certification: Cotton only certified organic; but, as in all of our fabrics, GOTS compliant processing from field to finished fabric.
- content: 33% hemp; 19% linen; 21% ramie*; 27% organic cotton
- railroaded: varies, but subtle
- weight: 15 oz yd2 / 509 gm m2
- width: 54" / 137 cm
*Ramie is a natural fiber, a bast fiber as are linen and hemp. Bast means the fiber is drawn from the stalk of the plan and not the flower, as with cotton. Bast fibers can be grown with no chemical inputs as the bugs are not drawn to flowers. Bast fibers are difficult to separate from the lignins and glues in the stalk, and the separation can be done by chemicals (boo!), water (boo if not treated and it is almost always NOT treated), or in the field, which is what we do. One of the major reasons why a hemp fabric should be GOTS certified.
**Allen, Will, “Fact Sheet on U.S. Cotton Subsidies and Cotton Production”, Feb. 2004, Organic Consumers Association, www.organicconsumers.org/clothes/224subsidies.cfm
*** World Wildlife Fund (www.panda.org) “Cotton: a water wasting crop.”
1. The prohibition of a long list of chemicals, such as formaldehyde, fluorocarbons (PFC's), heavy metals (lead, cadmium, mercury), the same chemicals prohibited in the GOTS standard.
2. Basic worker rights are honored and decent working conditions provided.
3. Although it is not specifically called out in the standard, a GOTS certified fabric is the best carbon choice by far, even if manufactured overseas and shipped back to the United States (for an explanation of why this is so, click here).
The GOTS standard is completely transparent, nothing is proprietary so there is no guessing as to standards used. You can download it at: www.global-standard.org. To learn more about GOTS, why it is important for you and your Earth, please read the answer to the question: "How can we make sure a fabric is free of chemicals of concern?"
To be clear: When we say that the fabric is produced in compliance with GOTS, we mean that we adhere to the GOTS standard even though we cannot prove it to you because someone in the chain of custody has dropped their GOTS certification. We know that we advise you to avoid suppliers who claim to be safe but do not have the certificates to prove it (putting us in a rather awkward position!) so if this makes you uncomfortable, please select a different fabric which has GOTS or Oeko Tex certification. We promise that we are converting to all third party certifications as soon as humanly possible.
1For a discussion of what the abrasion ratings mean, please click here.
