Chinese Hemp

In the beginning the Chinese Hemp comes from a cooperative of farmers using companion planting and growing practices. As the demand of this sustainable fiber grows with each season, more and more farmers are contracted in the region.

After Harvest

The plant goes to the mill, which functions as its own small community. There are over 3,000 people who live, work, eat, and celebrate together. There is a fire station, schools, karaoke, basket ball courts, housing, and much more. They believe in not having stress in their daily lives. Everyone eats breakfast and exercises daily. In the mornings you see people on the hill sides doing their Tiachi, or playing with their children before school and work.

You must be at least 18 years of age to work at the mill. Everyone is provided a locker, jacket, mask as needed, and child care. All facilities are kept safe, clean, and organized. The average work day consists of going into work for 3 hours at a station. Everyone takes one hour for lunch followed by an hour nap, before going back to a different work station for the remaining 3 hours. They do work a 3-4 hour half day on Saturday. Never is their time off taken away for urgent business needs.

Medical, food, housing, child care, and even wedding ceremonies are provided by the mill. None of this is an expense for employees. At current exchange rates the earnings would be the equivalent of our making $500.00 a month Spending money. They are happy, healthy, beautiful people with the same type of surroundings!

Reproduced from Envirotextiles. Labor and processing is TOS certified. The owner, Barabara Fillipone, has been the product developer at this mill for 10 years now and personally travels there on average of 4 times per year. She and her company have set new quality standards for textile verification and labeling.

Unless specified otherwise, all of our Chinese fabrics are verified by Barbara and Envirotextiles and rated through their SBP(Sustainable Biodegradable Products) rating system.

Romanian Hemp

The Romanian hemp fabrics that we carry are manufactured from 100% water-retted hemp fiber - an all natural biological process used to extract the hemp fiber from the stalk of the plant. The hemp is grown without herbicides and pesticides using responsible hemp cultivation and processing methods that have remained unchanged for generations. As with all natural fabrics, the natural color of the fiber can vary from time to time because of, among other things, the weather during cultivation and retting. These variations in color and structure of the yarns and fabrics are characteristic of these truly natural fabrics giving them their timeless beauty and style.

Hemp Linen Dyes - Are eco-friendly fiber reactive dyes, a water-soluable dye which reacts with the celluose in hemp fiber and bonds to the fiber. These low-impact dyes are characterized by their bright, vivid colors and their resistence to fading.

Reproduced from Hemp Basics.

Care Recommendations

Laundering
Use a non-chlorine bleach, eco-friendly detergent and pre-treat stains with a solution of detergent and warm water. Wash using cold water, then rack dry, and if you want, tumble dry on no heat.
Heat will damage fibers and cause shrinkage.

If you use powdered detergent run warm water first and mix thouroughly so it completely dissolves. Let the washer fill to the top before you load it.

Add 1/2 cup of white distilled vinegar to the rinse cycle. Vinegar acts as a natural fabric softener, removes soap residues and prevents yellowing.

Removing Wrinkles
Mix 1 part vinegar and 3 parts water and spray on wrinkles. Hang to dry. Repeat as necessary.

Kapok Pillow Fluffing
Depending on your use you will want to periodically refluff your pillows. We have found the best thing you can do is take the outer cover off of your pillow and just kind of break apart the kapok fill, in its cover, with your hands.

Kapok fiber will break down and you will find it is time to add more stuffing. Please contact us and we will be happy to assist you with that.

Characteristics of Hemp fabrics:

Hemp fabrics are quite amazing and reward you with a healthy, intimate connection to your products. The more personal you get with hemp, and the more you use it, the better, and more soft it becomes.

1. Hemp fabrics are linen like yet very strong and long-lasting.
2. Hemp thrives on use and abuse, wearing in, not out.
3. Hemp is naturally UV resistant and 3 times the tensile strength of cotton.

Each hemp fabric is unique and have random personality differences. Most of our Chinese fabrics are blends. This utilizes the qualities and characteristics of the other fibers and results in a superior material.

A note on the softness of hemp:
Yes! It is true that hemp fabrics become much softer than any other natural or synthetic fabrics available, including cotton. This has been said by many around the world for centuries and personally tested by us for many years now. Simply put, it just takes use and time. Remember, these fabrics are not being softened at the onset with harsh chemicals. Except for our Romanian hemp, caustic soda is used for processing hemp, bamboo, and organic cotton fabrics.

A note on caustic sodas:
Sodium hydroxide, also know as caustic soda, is an organic chemical and while harsh, is not nearly what it is being presented to be. Most people don't realize that caustic soda is used on every cotton fabric produced in the world, including organic cotton and bamboo. During wet processing, caustic soda is used to remove the cotton motes from fabric and to raise the ph level in the water. The treatment of the water to bring the ph level back down before the water is released is as simple as injecting oxygen into the water. Most people would probably be surprised to know that sodium hydroxide is an approved chemical for use on organic fabrics based on the Global Organic Textile Standard.

Fibers used in our Chinese Hemp blends:

Ramie- White, strong, natural fiber, silky look.
Flax- A similar plant to hemp, soft and flexible.
Tencel- A man-made natural fabric, uses some finish chemicals which are reused in the Hempcel.
Cotton- Used for its soft, breathable qualities, sustainable and grown without chemicals.
Organic Cotton-SKAL Certified, some of the highest standards in the world.
Recycled Poly- A fabric made from recycled soda bottles. The poly blends are great fabrics.

Kapok and Organic Cotton Stuffing

Kapok is a vegetable fiber harvested from the seed pods of the ancient Kapok tree, or cotton silk tree. It grows naturally in Asia, primarily Java, Indonesia, and it's qualities include:

1. It is similar to down filling except it is hypo-allergenic and water-resistant.
2. 100% SBP. Does not need chemicals for growing or processing.
3. A golden silky fiber that is very smooth and soft and it magically shapes to the body with good resiliency.
4. Having air-filled tubes of fiber, it is very breathable and allows for great circulation.
5. Non-toxic, even if inhaled, hygienic, mold and decay resistant.
6. The Kapok Tree grows very large and is not cut down thereby left to absorb atmospheric carbon.
7. Click here to learn more about this sacred tree and fiber at Wikipedia.
8. Contrary to prior beliefs Kapok is not toxic when inhaled. This seems to come from a time when they treated it before being used in furniture.

Our organic cotton stuffing comes from a cooperative of growers in Texas. They are very proud to be offering this as are we. Organic cotton does not require the large amounts of water, chemicals and pesticides that traditional cotton does.