Dye-Time is not Tye-Dye
When Nicola approached me to write a column for liveeco, I’ll admit to being a little stymied. Excited and keen to get involved (!!) as matters green are close to my heart, but stymied nonetheless…
I’ve always recycled,but this year I’m making an extra effort: using energy saving lightbulbs, actively switching off lights and conserving energy wherever Ican, buying organic produce that isn’t packaged or isin recyclable packaging and using shoppers versus plastic packets (Ihave five bags vicariously floating in the car so that I always haveone to hand).
But those of course are the obvious choicesand what escaped me were the less obvious ways one can make smallchanges to your lifestyle that will add up to a nice, tidy savingsaccount for our children’s futures.
As a lover of all things clothingrelated – my simultaneous vice and passion – the excitement quicklyturned into relish at the prospect of snooping out ways to create a greener wardrobe(no this does not involve hanging sprigs of lavender in it)… So noweach week I shall share one little nugget of information for you to useor lose, but hopefully use, as well as a product I’m crazy about.
Tip One: Recession-busting-Repurposing (?)
Definition = to rescue items of clothing from the doldrums of your wardrobe by dying…
Takea deep breath and dive into the caverns of your wardrobe, scrounge outthose items lurking in the recesses that are looking a bit tired andworn. In particular dark items that are looking lack lustre and thoseyou have never worn because the colour doesn’t really do anything.
Next, locate a company like Zamfos Dyers (5 Howe Street, Observatory, tel: 021 448 0877) and bundle yourself and your clothes into a car (and if you can carpool with a friend who’s done the same you get extra brownie points).
Next,deal with one of the very nice ladies there and select from a colourchart the colours you want to dye your clothes. Then two weeks latercollect dyed clothing and voila it’s like you’ve been on a shoppingspree!
Tips for dying: garments withsynthetic fibre in them will not dye as well as natural fibre garments- cotton, silks and linens will lap colour up. Also one cannot dye adark colour light (duh).
We love this service because: you pay by the kilo but can split your bundle according into littlecolour piles. Also you’re maximising the shelf life of your garmentsthis way…
Our find of the week:
I instantaneously fell in love with these beautiful leather necklaces at Misfit, top of Long Street in Cape Town… A product of the clever Chloe Townsend’s Missibabarange they not only pick up on the Fluoro trend (folks you’re going tobe needing sunnies on our streets and not from the sun’s glare -fluorine colour is going to explode) they are also made from the leather off-cuts from her bag and belt production.
And what’s more it’s also sustainable fashion asthe pieces are produced by a community-development group of women andthe profits are ploughed back into this business. They get a ten outof ten on the cool, green products scale.
