Peppermint Magazine: Ethical Fashion and Fabrics

Peppermint Magazine is an Australian mag that is a real inspiration for eco sewing! I read an article on the website today, and saw photos of men and women sewing clothes in factories. The photos brought me to tears! Anyone who sews knows what it is like to sit at that machine and make garments or items. All the work that goes into a piece, all the headaches too!

Reading about the fact that most of the garment workers from suppliers on down the chain do not make a living wage tugs at my heart. The thing is it takes a bit of leg work to find fabrics and clothing that are ethically sourced. And if you are plus size, it is even more challenging to find ethically created and sourced clothing. For years I thought that just because I was sewing things myself, that I was making a difference as far as some of my clothing not coming from sweatshops. The thing is even at the fabric production level, there is slave labor and people being paid pennies for the work they are doing! In the article it is cited that one woman began making garments as a 14 year old kid, and even now, years later is only making $85 a month!

Here are a couple of links! The first is to the article on Peppermint! It is a must read to figure out ways you can be part of the solution! It is worthwhile to follow the magazine, they send out missives regularly with lots of inspiration for seamstresses. They cover stuff happening in Australia mostly, but it is a very cool read even if you live elsewhere!

Ethical Fashion Article on Peppermint

This second article is a blog post I found that lists ethical sources to buy fabric in the USA/UK. I noticed Mood fabric is on the list, and that is where I plan on buying my fashion fabric going forward! I once believed in buying my fabric second hand on Etsy, but now I notice people are just buying bulk fabric on discount and then reselling it on Etsy. So a better bet is to shop at stores where you can find organic and fair trade fabrics. A notable alternative to sweatshop made fabrics is to upcycle linens and old clothes into new makes! You can thrift all kinds of old sheets and clothing to turn into new garments. Another site I noticed was Spoonflower! You can create your own fabric designs and have them printed on that site! The fabrics are mostly out of my price range, but I’m considering checking them out as well.

Here’s that blog post with the list!

As an eco seamstress, I highly recommend Peppermint Magazine for all kinds of incredible content, sewing inspiration and insights into sustainable beauty and fashion!