Finding organic low- or zero-carbon underwear?

It's that time.  Time to get new underwear.  I started to do what I usually do, grab packs of mass produced drawers from the local massive chain store.  Then I thought, wait a minute, can I get drawers that are in line with my values?  I don't want to destroy the environment to cover my bum, y'know?

So the idea is, how to find people who live on more-or-less self-sufficient homesteads, and who sell wool (from sheep, bunnies, llamas, whatever...) or cotton or other fibers, and also how to find seamstresses/tailors/fiber artists (can be the same people who make the fibers) who make clothes (and who also live in non-destructive ways).  I want to buy the fibers and then pay someone to make clothes (not just underwear) out of them.  I figure these would be expensive clothes, but that's okay if the money is flowing into a subset of the economy where it won't cause trouble, eh?  I want to give these folks my money.

I'm just starting to look for people, so any tips or leads would be greatly appreciated!

I feel you have a good idea.

It might be easier to buy the material if you can find a seamstress.

Ask at your local fabric shop for leads on a seamstress.

Sustainable fabric is available online.

Simon Foreman wrote:It's that time.  Time to get new underwear.  I started to do what I usually do, grab packs of mass produced drawers from the local massive chain store.  Then I thought, wait a minute, can I get drawers that are in line with my values?  I don't want to destroy the environment to cover my bum, y'know?

So the idea is, how to find people who live on more-or-less self-sufficient homesteads, and who sell wool (from sheep, bunnies, llamas, whatever...) or cotton or other fibers, and also how to find seamstresses/tailors/fiber artists (can be the same people who make the fibers) who make clothes (and who also live in non-destructive ways).  I want to buy the fibers and then pay someone to make clothes (not just underwear) out of them.  I figure these would be expensive clothes, but that's okay if the money is flowing into a subset of the economy where it won't cause trouble, eh?  I want to give these folks my money.

I'm just starting to look for people, so any tips or leads would be greatly appreciated!

Go commando.. I haven’t worn underwear in almost 30 years. (Not counting wintertime long johns.. not an option.)

I'd suggest contacting your local fiber arts guilds (I found mine via search engine). I can't promise all are living according to your ideals, and not all grow/ raise their own fibers - but many do, and those who don't may well know some folks who do. Here, we have 2 groups, local to me - one that is very little-old-lady knit/ crochet/ weaving *art* oriented, and one that is far more active farmer/ grower/ processor oriented, with a stronger emphasis on making from what they/we raise ourselves or buy from local farmers to process,  ourselves. Most you'll find will be county or regional based, some may be town/city based, and some area guilds will overlap or have gaps, geographically, so I'd recommend not limiting your search to just your own town.

Simon Foreman wrote:It's that time.  Time to get new underwear...

Sewing them yourself is an excellent beginner project. I upcycled stained but otherwise fine 100% cotton t-shirts and I even got a badge bit for it here: https://permies.com/wiki/167224/pep-textiles/Sew-pair-panties-boxers-briefs#1466905
Badge bit or BB for short relates to the SKIP program which is trying to get us modern folks to start practicing all those skills my great-grandmother would have done as a normal task.

Whether or not you consider upcycling "zero-carbon" is up to you. I just know that if I keep something out of the landfill, and then later I can compost it, at least the carbon in it becomes food for my plants.

Noble idea, unfortunately most natural products are processed by using chemicals or bio detergents.

The mass produced cotton underwear isn't good in any way.
Underpaid labor till contaminated plants and materials, but HEY!
How long you use them in average? (I mean how many month you got them)

So and that verifies for me that Undies & Co are a very minor problem and if you use these 3-4 hrs buying them to grab some seeds (harvesting in Parks, from neighbors etc. etc.), pot them.
Then, when the saplings are big enough get new underwear and in front of the supermarket you give the trees away to folks that promise to plant them..

Then you are worth mass produced but comfortable undies without itching due to natural fibers....
That little pollution you create will be nothing compared what these trees give back.

Sorry Jay and Carla (the never sleeping admins), your reply came as I was writing mine.

Both opinions have not been mentioned in my text but certainly to grannies time I was wearing briefs made by her from bedsheets and t-shirts.

Also the guild shops are a nice feature but unfortunately most are transferring us back into the stone age and some even a few stones further.

What I am missing is that these "bio shops" are all a little bit in these "good ol' times as mother.... No supermarkets...."
That's how we end up with a locker full of hand sewed "eco undies", worn once until the scratchy clothes were deep down in the drawer and never taken again.

My signature explains my thoughts...  
If the quality of an item of the future can beat the quality of an item of the past future and is able to bring us back to nature.....  (Just a dream)  

See, I'm sorry your experience has been so negative. The local-to-me fiber arts guild with the heavier focus on the farmers, source of origin, etc, are very focused on using each of the fibers for the best purpose suited to its type (not all wool is created equal, not all animal fiber is wool -or created equal, & plant fibers are at least as varied) and high quality products.

Thanks!  Great stuff.

I'll definitely contact local groups and guilds.

Go commando.. I haven’t worn underwear in almost 30 years. (Not counting wintertime long johns.. not an option.)

It's not out of the question, but I'd like to get a whole wardrobe too.  Pants and shirts, etc...

Sewing them yourself is an excellent beginner project. I upcycled stained but otherwise fine 100% cotton t-shirts

I do some knitting, and I have a sewing machine, but I'm not quite there yet.  I use the sewing machine mostly to make air-prune gallon bags out of fiberglass screendoor screen.  It barely counts a sewing.

I usually wear my clothes until they're hole-ly and then feed 'em to the compost worms.  Socks that are still good I wash and give to homeless folks, you can never get enough clean socks when you're roughin' it.

unfortunately most natural products are processed by using chemicals or bio detergents

I know, right?  It's kinda crazy when you think about it.  That's what I'm trying to avoid, that inconsistency between values and actions.

that verifies for me that Undies & Co are a very minor problem

That's a really fascinating point (in my opinion), it's really hard to beat the industrial system.  Within its envelope or universe of goals the global economy is fantastically capable.

I saw this recently in the 3D printer world.  I was interested in printing a "RepRap", a 3D printer that can (almost) print copies of itself.  But what happened is that all the folks who were really into 3D printing went and got really good at it.  They went from printing printers to making and selling industrial 3D machines.  They opened 3D print shops, and competed on quality and capability and speed.  Now you can send files to a shop and get your parts(s) in a day or two.  With metal and different kinds of plastic or rubber or whatever!  In colors too.

So now, it only makes sense to DIY in the 3D printer world if you really love it for itself (amateur) or if you want to break into the industry.

The pattern is the same in most industries, like food production.  Permaculture can't compete with e.g industrial corn on the basis of quantity or price, they're just too efficient.  We have to compete in quality, eh?
That's where I'm going with this organic clothing bug.

you give the trees away to folks that promise to plant them

Not to brag, but I'm doing that too.  Permit me to preen over my babies just a bit...  I have macadamia and carob, honey locust, black locust, black walnut, candlenut.  I have some Annonas and six Theobroma cacao.  I have Cajanus cajan and tamarind.  I have more kinds of trees sprouting here than I can recall off the top of my head.  Soon, within a few years, I'll be in a position to spawn semi-tropical food forest!

I'll post some photos of my tiny little tropical hothouse later.  

If the quality of an item of the future can beat the quality of an item of the past future and is able to bring us back to nature...

I feel ya!  That's my dream too: to heal the divorce from Nature without sacrificing the good things that science and technology provide.  I'm a computer nerd and a technophile, but I also love Nature and revere all living things (except mosquitos and ticks, and even then I gotta admit they have their role to play in the great drama of life, yes?)

I like to point out to people that ecology is a science and its applications are technology. (like Permaculture!  Bill Mollison was an ecologist, eh?)

I could see something like drones picking up and delivering goods from homestead farms, powered by renewable sourced electricity, to cover that "last mile" gap that makes it so difficult for small farmers to reach the lucrative markets.  Imagine, for example, that it cost 1/100 to get your produce to the farmer's market?  Or right to your CSA members' front doors?
Why should Jef Bezos have all the fun (and profit?)

Anyway, that's exactly how I see it: the old ways are good, and worthy of keeping alive and practicing, let's integrate the new ways in new, uh, ways that don't destroy what we love about the old.

Just to mention, on this thread https://permies.com/t/20504/fiber-arts/search-natural-clothing-winter-gear I found some good references including LocalHarvest.org which seems like a good place to find people.

I'm still on this quest. I'm down to two pairs of drawers now, and I can't make more from my T-shirts because they're falling apart too!  I'm going to a natural dye market next week to connect with the local regional "fibershed": Fibershed Natural Dye Farmers Market, May 7, 2023