No More Polyester! Campaign in the News

CBC Radio had a segment on the local afternoon radio program, Up To Speed, titled How Well Do You Know What's in Your Closet?  It aired on January 15, 2024 and it was an interview with Elise Epp, Canada's coordinator with Fashion Revolution regarding the No More Polyester! campaign.  You can listen to it here.  

Epp raises some interesting facts about polyester in the seven minute interview about the dangers polyester poises not only to the environment but our health as well.  

Let's face it, many of us discovered in our sewing journeys that polyester is not the gold standard of fabric.  But it's loved and cherished by cheap clothing and household / bedding manufacturers and the people who peddle this fiber in their wares.  It a filler that allows them to fatten their profit margins and leaves you conned into believing it is something good.  

I've been conned into believing this in the past.  Even the recent past.  

It's hard to escape polyester's domination even in the fabric store aisles.  Today, I stopped by one of the few fabric stores in the city, the local Fabricland, to pick up some thread.  And I would easily say at least 90% of the store was filled with fabrics and other products that were polyester or polyester blends.  Even thread.  The selection of cotton threads is overshadowed by the polyester selection of thread.  

And then I stumbled across a few rolls of silk noil, not the quality of silk noil of days gone by and certainly not the price that I've seen it listed for in the past.  These thinner rolls of silk noil were priced at $80.00 Cdn / metre.  Prices like these for natural fiber fabrics make those cheaper polyester fabrics appear to be more desirable in these challenging economic times.  It's not worth it.  

Do you know polyester allergies exist?  A person can experience a skin reaction when coming into contact with polyester fabric.  And miscarriages have been tied to polyester underwear in a National Institute of Health study.  Polyester has a dark history that parallels the one described in Fake Silk, a look at the history of viscose rayon.  

This challenge, I thought might be hard when I first thought about it.  I'm not feeling that way today, I'm even more determined and energized to keep my 2024 sewing projects polyester free.  Have you signed up for the challenge to kick polyester to the curb?   Are you thinking about it?  

Oh and that thread, I picked up a 100% cotton spool.  Small steps hopefully will lead to big change.