The Jacket Project: Local Meets Fair Trade

TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles is collaborating on a very special project that transforms fair trade, artisanal fabric from Thailand into one-of-a-kind jackets designed and sewn in Canada.

The Jacket Project brings together TAMMACHAT co-founders Ellen Agger and Alleson Kase with Nova Scotian dressmaker Theresa Eagles to create unique jackets, each a work of art that connects women across the world. Two designs will be available at TAMMACHAT's November 2012 shows in Nova Scotia.

See photos of the first jackets in our blog post here.

Ellen loves her new indigo jacket!

This is the first organic silk jacket created as part of The Jacket Project.
It combines a silk dyed with stick lac with a beautiful,
ikat (mudmee) fabric, traditionally woven
to be worn as a wrap skirt.

Another organic silk jacket features fancy buttons
and will look great with a silk scarf.

Theresa and Alleson enjoy a break on
a beautiful Nova Scotian fall day.

The Jacket Project's goals are:

• to bring together the artistry of handwoven cloth created by talented Thai artisans with the creative design and sewing skills of our Canadian team
• to enjoy the collaboration, the design process and the excitement of transforming the cloth into wearable art
• to support rural craftswomen -- both in Thailand and Canada

Woven in Thailand, designed and handcrafted in Canada

Theresa's skilled hands guide the fabric.

Made from organic silk or cotton fabric handwoven by women artisans in Thailand, the jackets are designed and handcrafted in Canada. Details from Chinese coin layered buttons to intricately patterned ikat panels, along with the subtle variations in handwoven cloth, make each jacket unique. French seams are used in the silk jackets.

The textured, organic cottons are spun by hand, then dyed with authentic indigo. The highly skilled silk artisans raise heritage varieties of silkworms and create the hand-reeled yarns in their villages, not in factories. Each piece of fabric is woven by hand, using these artisanal yarns, and transformed into a jacket that displays its artistry. See how the cloth is made in the photos below.

Our first jackets -- a collection of handspun, indigo organic cotton and organic silks -- will debut in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Nov. 10 at TAMMACHAT's Ethical Gift Show - Halifax. They will also be available in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia on Nov. 24 at TAMMACHAT's Ethical Gift Show - Mahone Bay.  This small collection of unique jackets will be available only at TAMMACHAT shows.

Theresa loves working with the ikats (known as mudmee in Thailand).
Each piece of ikat fabric is a work of art in itself.

Theresa lays out each piece carefully to use
the cloth most effectively.

TAMMACHAT works with a dozen women’s weaving groups in Thailand and Laos, visiting them each year to discover new textiles and design new products. These artisan groups continue to practice traditions passed from mother to daughter for generations. The Jacket Project uses fabric from 3 of these artisan groups.

Theresa Eagles, who worked for Suttles and Seawinds in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia for 20 years and sews with well-known artist Kate Church, brings years of experience to the project.

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The indigo and ikat artisans

 

Ellen enjoys the ikat artisans
who create designs large and small.

This artisan skillfully ties the yarns
into an ikat pattern before dyeing.

The dye maker stirs the pot of locally grown
indigo leaves.

Tied yarns are dyed with indigo,
then the strings are removed.

The intricate pattern emerges as the cloth is woven.

Aew, who helps these weavers market
their handwoven products, takes a break with Alleson.

Alleson and Aew discuss designs with the artisans.

This piece of ikat fabric is used in our cotton jackets.

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The silk artisans and their organic silk cloth

Mulberry trees and bushes are grown organically.
Leaves are fed to heritage varieties of silkworms
who eat voraciously for a month and must be tended carefully
until they are ready to spin their cocoons.

This artisan reels (unravels) the cocoons by hand,
creating fine silk yarns that are
then twisted to strengthen them.

Local dye materials colour the silk yarns:
young coconut, jackfruit wood, butterfly pea flowers.

Award-winning yarns show hues only nature can offer.

Artisans use traditional floor looms,
made locally from tropical hardwood
and sustainably harvested bamboo.
Both cotton and silk are woven on these looms.

Cerise organic silk, coloured with stick lac, an insect resin,
is used in several of our silk jackets.

This golden silk is shot -- the weft yarns are
coloured with coconut husks and
the warp remains an undyed cream colour --
giving depth to the cloth.

Our thanks to:

• Pattanarak Foundation (through whom we first met Aew) and Napafai, Aew's social enterprise that works with the indigo ikat weavers
• Panmai Group and Prae Pan Group, the Thai women's weaving co-operatives that create the handloomed organic silk and cotton fabrics
• Theresa Eagles -- for the pleasure of working together
• Wayne Eagles -- for the photos of Theresa's working hands
• Kate Church -- for introducing us to Theresa

You can learn more about these and our other artisan partners in our Blurb books, free to preview and available in hardcover, softcover and as ebooks.

Fairtrade organic cotton along the Mekong

Stuffed elephant cushions, bags, table cloths, jackets,bucket hats, zippered pouches – these are a few of the handwoven cotton products made with cloth created by women in Thailand's Ubon Ratchathani province.

organic cotton elephants stuffed with organic kapok!

They make many of these products from handspun, organic cotton, grown along the banks of the Mekong River that divides Thailand from Laos, when the river levels are low in cool and dry seasons, revealing fertile land. It is perfect for growing the cotton, its companion plant indigo – the leaves of which yield the well-known, deep blue indigo dye – and vegetable crops ranging from leaf lettuces, green onions and cilantro to animal feed crops like corn.

organic cotton on the banks of the Mekong River

In 2009, we spent 2 weeks with Aew, who worked with village groups of organic cotton farmers, spinners, dyers and weavers for more than 15 years. We documented and celebrated the Pattanarak Foundation's Organic Cotton Project in a photo book, Weaving Sustainable Communities: Organic Cotton Along the Mekong. (Preview it free online.)

The project ended but Aew, deeply rooted with these artisan groups, started a small, fair trade social enterprise, Napafai, to continue to offer them markets in nearby urban centres, such as Ubon.

Alleson and Aew from Napafai

We met up with Aew in her hometown of Ubon, where she also works for another Thai non-governmental organization, to learn more about her ongoing work with these artisans. She now works as a volunteer board member for the Nong Peun Noi Product Training Centre, where the skilled artisans taught us how they gin and fluff cotton, spin it by hand, dye it with local natural dyes, tie-dye their mudmee (ikat) patterns and weave cloth on traditional floor looms.

tyeing the pattern before dyeing

the tie-dyed indigo mudmee

At this centre, the area artisans receive training – such as the 3-day training in sewing bags that was going on during our visit with Aew – and train school groups and other artisan groups in their centre, passing along their skills.

Nong Peun Noi Product Training Centre

We love the stuffed elephants (sold here as cushions, but equally delightful as sweatshop-free toys) and ordered them in a variety of colours, including bold checks and stripes! (Who says all elephants are grey?) We were excited to find 4 pieces of mudmee cloth in intense indigo blue, woven with a handspun organic cotton weft (crossways yarns) and we ordered small zippered pouched in a finer indigo mudmee cloth.

mudmee zippered pouches --
perfect for notions, change, iPod or phone

a finely patterned mudmee cotton cloth

A quilt with organic cotton batting intrigued us too. Cloth made from fine cotton yarns was loosely woven then 2 layers were stuffed with cotton after its seeds were removed using a handcarved, hand-cranked, traditional cotton gin and fluffed with another traditional tool.

removing seeds with traditional wooden cotton gin

fluffing cotton before spinning it

organic cotton batting in a handwoven quilt cover

We look forward to visiting Napafai's new shop – in the planning stages – and seeing continued opportunities for these artisans to market their work, especially important for the middle-aged and older women whose work with cloth brings much-needed income to their families.