Environmentally Sustainable Cross Stitching
Supporting Earth Day
Contents
Introduction
Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held way back in 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org. The official theme for 2022 is “Invest In Our Planet”. So how can we as stitchers help to do our bit?
Ideas to Support Sustainable Cross Stitching
Small things done by everyone can have a larger impact overall.
Stitch from Your Stash
Unless you are doing a photo-realistic cross stitch you can often substitute one thread color for another and use up your existing stash rather than buy new every time. In fact when stitching the little Earth Day project in the image above I did just that as I didn’t have any of the three shades of green that were required so just substituted them.
To help you find candidates that you might already have you can use our closest-color matching tool. Just pick the color you need to replace and it will give you a list of alternate threads that are most similar.
Recycle / Donate
We all have way more stuff than we’re ever going to use, right. Right?!
Why not donate the items that you will never use - as well as not being wasteful it will help others enjoy the hobby that is increasingly becoming more expensive. Better than them sitting in a cupboard for years unused!
Do you really need to print that?
Use digital patterns rather than printed pages by using an app to view and mark off progress. Digital apps are becoming increasingly popular as an alternative to using printed charts and can actually make your stitching easier and faster. Check out our Thread-bare App as a great option for fully converting to digital patterns.
If you do feel you need to print - don’t print the entire chart, just the page you are working on, if the project is abondoned (yes we all know that happens) you haven’t needlessly printed 80+ pages that will now not be used or could just be lost or damaged before you use them.
Hoops
Use woodern hoops rather plastic - these will biodegrade and compost when disposed of, just remove the metal clasp first. Use old hoops that are no longer strong enough to support stitching as a frame to finish a piece.
Old Fabrics
At first glance you may think an old piece of fabric that has been stained or cut is now useless, but you can easily dye it rather than throw it away. Another option is to trim it down and reuse it for smaller projects such as Christmas ornaments.
Let’s look at the labels on skiens.
Some DMC skeins have both the symbols below and others only have the Green Dot symbol.
Green Dot symbol:
This symbol does not always mean that the packaging is recyclable. It is a symbol used on packaging in some European countries and signifies that the producer has made a financial contribution towards the recovery and recycling of packaging in Europe. The symbol is therefore a financing symbol and not a recycling symbol as many people mistake it to be, but does show that DMC has made a contribution to a recycling program.
The Triman Symbol
This symbol means the packaging can be recyled but should be sorted into the appropriate recylcing category
These are just a few ideas to do your little bit to help the planet, let us know if you have any others.
Happy Earth Day !!!
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