Renaissance gowns costumes and Medieval wedding dresses by the Very Merry Seamstress

•Complete Online Catalog
•Custom Estimate Form
•What's New
•Budget Faire Packages
•Antique Gown Collection
•Fabrics
•Embroidery Designs
•Faire Gown Gallery
•Policies and FAQs
•About us
•Contact Information
•Customer Photos
•The Stitch - my blog
•Faires and festivals

Search

April 10, 2008

Accidentally, on purpose

Last weekend I took several bags of old toys to Goodwill and donated them, and afterward I drove across the street to Old Navy to pick up some pants for the kids. Several people have told me about these miraculous adjustable-waistband pants offered by Old Navy, and since my kidlets are long, lean beanpoles with pants that are constantly hanging down below buttcrack level, I decided to check it out.

SCORE!

Old Navy does indeed offer adjustable waistband pants, and while I was there they were hosting a magnificent sale, so I picked up an armload of summer attire (mostly for Adam who has no hand-me-downs until 3T), thinking that with this spree, I would be done shopping for the whole season.

I reached the checkout counter and began to de-hanger all of the clothes. When it was my turn in the queue, I asked the clerk if it was okay to leave the hangers for Old Navy to recycle. He shrugged and told me that he'd be happy to take them, but they would be thrown in the trash, because Old Navy doesn't recycle their plastic hangers.

I asked him why and he told me that it's cheaper for Old Navy to pay someont to put new hangers on all the clothes than it is to recycle the old hangers and went on to tell me that all of my hangers (there were over 40 of them) would be thrown into the garbage.

Needless to say, I was appalled. However, I continued to de-hanger the clothes, silently fuming.

When he totalled up my bill, I reached into my bag for my wallet and noticed it was missing. Of course, I skipped right over 'logic and rational thinking,' dove headfirst into PANIC MODE and said, "My wallet is not in my bag!"

The clerk replied calmly, "Go see if you can find it, and when you come back I'll finish checking our your purchases."

I dodged out the door, fearing I had dropped it in the Goodwill parking lot while unloading donation bags. When I reached the car, I remembered that I had actually left my wallet in my coat. Which, (grumble), was HOME.

Embarrassed, I hopped in the car thinking I could drive home, get the wallet, and return to finish the transaction. But the cashier's words kept echoing in my head: "Old Navy doesn't recycle their plastic hangers. Old Navy doesn't recycle their plastic hangers. Old Navy doesn't recycle their plastic hangers."

And I realized that this was an act of divine intervention. Mother Nature stole my wallet so that I would not be responsible for 40 more hangers being foolishly deposited in our landfills.

I drove home, hopped online to see if I could find out why Old Navy doesn't recycle their hangers and found several stories similar to my own.

These folks blogged about it and offered some great links on how to contact Old Navy (which is owned by The Gap, and also owns Banana Republic and Piperlime) to complain about their hanger policy.

Another blogger wrote about it too. Seems I'm not alone.

Here's an article about why they've decided to do this. According to Old Navy (and other stores listed in the article) that packaging clothing on plastic hangers at the manufacturing plant, then dumping them in our landfills is more acceptable than wrinkles on clothing. Makes sense, right? I mean, wouldn't you rather see all those Old Navy hangers in our landfills than wrinkles on a shirt in the store?

I did NOT return to Old Navy and complete my transaction. And as awesome as I think their adjustable-waistband pants are, I have decided that the cost to our planet is not worth keeping the kids' butts covered. Besides, their butts are awfully darn cute. Definitely more pleaseant to look at than millions of plastic hangers in our landfills.

And what will Adam be wearing this summer? If he has anything to say about it, he'll be naked. But on days when he loses that battle, he'll be sporting the latest fashions from Goodwill, who proudly recycles their hangers and all the clothing they sell.

Posted by verymerryseamstress at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

July 17, 2007

Dear Commercial Bread Bakers,

Please find a way to package your bread in something other than plastic. Even the local bakers use either a plastic sleeve or a plastic window in their packaging. The only bread I can find in something other than plastic is white bread, and we're a whole wheat kind of family.

I know you're just as concerned about the amount of non-biodegradable plastic being produced, so until then I am going to stop adding to the problem and I will bake my own whole wheat bread and chapatis.

Thank you. I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do when you put your earth-friendly mind to it. :-)

Sincerely,
Heather

Posted by verymerryseamstress at 08:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 19, 2007

Not that we need another reason, but

Oh, to be plastic-free.

Thanks for the link, Brian.

Posted by verymerryseamstress at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why we're trying

A lot of people have been asking why we've decided to try to eat only foods available within a 100-mile radius. Well, there are several reasons, but this website does a better job of explaining than I could do.

Several people have also asked why we're trying to cut down on our packaging and our use of plastics. Three things recently grabbed my attention and raised my awareness of the amount of plastic in our lives and how terrible it is for the environment. The first was this article, called "Plastic Ocean." Please be warned, there are some distubing pictures on that website.

The second grabber was this fact, quoted from the Plastic Ocean article: "Except for the small amount that's been incinerated - and it's a very small amount - every bit of plastic ever made still exists."

That plastic Shed House bag I received back in 1982 when I bought my first pair of white Levis painter pants - it's still floating around in a landfill somewhere. You remember the plastic tub that our cottage cheese came in, back in 1969? It's at the bottom of the ocean, contributing to the level of pollution in our waters. Then add to that one container, all other plastic containers ever created - and try to find a place to put them when we throw them away. Where does it go? "Away" is still somewhere.

And lastly, if you want to see what American Mass Consumption looks like, visit Chris Jordan's website and you can see what "away" looks like. Would you want this in your backyard? Well, guess what. It's already there.

From Chris Jordan's site:
"Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress. I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity.

The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.

As an American consumer myself, I am in no position to finger wag; but I do know that when we reflect on a difficult question in the absence of an answer, our attention can turn inward, and in that space may exist the possibility of some evolution of thought or action. So my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry. It may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake. "

This is why we (Pipers) feel as though we have to try. If nothing else, we've increased the level of awareness and are making a solid attempt to lighten our impact on the earth. It may not be much - but it's more than we were doing before, and I like to think that every little bit helps.

Posted by verymerryseamstress at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 13, 2007

More Green Thoughts

From the "No Impact Man" blog:

A new project launched by Miranda at Simple Living and Sharon at Causabon’s Book, which strives to give a set of fixed and stringent rules for reduction of individual greenhouse gas emissions, in each of seven areas, by 90 percent. . . .

Sharon and Miranda call their initiative the Riot for Austerity 90% Emissions Reduction Project. They choose the 90 percent mark because climatologists now generally agreethat we need to reduce manmade greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050 in order to prevent the melting of the icecaps and Greenland ice sheet that would cause irreversible change to the climate. Because American’s emit way more greenhouse gas than most of the rest of the world’s peoples, we must reduce our emissions by 94 percent in order to meet the planetary target of 80 percent. Sharon and Miranda rounded from 94 percent to 90 to make it easy (joke!).

They have a Yahoo discussion group, where people who want to attempt the 90 percent reduction—or even less stringent targets—can discuss. The rules for the Riot for Austerity are based on the average US consumption in each of seven areas. The project targets are calculated as a 90 percent reduction on those averages. I’ve summarized the targets for each of the seven areas below:

Gasoline:

* 50 gallons per PERSON, per YEAR

Electricity:

* 1,100 kWh per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR

Heating and cooking energy:

* If your home uses propane or natural gas, 100 therms per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR
* If your home uses heating oil, 75 gallons per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR.
* If your home uses locally and sustainably harvested wood: Unlimited
* If your home uses unsustainably harvested wood, 5 cords per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR

Garbage:

* 0.45 pounds of garbage per PERSON, per DAY

Water:

* 10 gallons per PERSON, per DAY

Consumer goods:

* $1,000 worth per HOUSEHOLD, per YEAR.
* Used goods count only ten percent of their purchase price (so you could buy $10,000 of used stuff).
* Used goods that were donated to Goodwill or the church rummage sale, etc, can be bought in unlimited amounts (since might otherwise just end up in landfill).

Food:

* No less than 70% of food purchases should be organic and be grown within 100 miles.
* No more than 25% of food purchases should be bulk, dry goods (flour, pasta, etc) from more than 100 miles away.
* No more than 5% of food purchases should be wet goods (meat, fruit, shampoo) from more than 100 miles away.

I know that we (Pipers) can absolutely improve what we're currently doing - and we need to try. I don't think we should be waiting for the government to force us to fix the global impact issues. We have the power to make changes. We have the power to fix this.

Brian and I have been talking about raising chickens for the eggs (not meat). We're not vegetarians, but I'm absolutely certain neither one of us would be able to butcher an animal. Neither one of us is so fond of meat that we couldn't give it up. Maybe local fishing is the solution for us. We raise our own vegetables and preserve what we can't immediately eat. Local milk and other dairy products are not difficult to obtain. We'll ponder this a bit more, and once we have a plan in place, I'll post about it.

Posted by verymerryseamstress at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 10, 2007

More Environmental Goodness

50 Ways To Save the Environment, from justgive.org

We’ve all noticed the temperatures getting a warmer, SUVs getting bigger and hurricanes and earthquakes ravaging the Earth, but is it global warming or a natural occurrence? Al Gore’s new documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” shows his efforts to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. He believes global warming is not a political issue, but an individual moral issue facing every member of our community. JustGive has created 50 ways to help protect our environment in your everyday life.

In your home

1. Recycle everything: newspapers, bottles and cans, aluminum foil, etc.
2. Don't use electrical appliances when you can easily do by hand, such as opening cans.
3. Use cold water in the washer whenever possible.
4. Re-use brown paper bags to line your trash can instead of plastic bags. Re-use bread bags and produce bags.
5. Store food in re-usable containers.
6. Save wire hangers and return them to the dry cleaners.
7. Donate used items to a charitable organization or thrift shop.
8. Don't leave water running needlessly.
9. Turn your heat down, and wear a sweater.
10. Turn off the lights, TV, or other electrical appliances when you are out of a room.
11. Flush the toilet less often.
12. Turn down the heat and turn off the water heater before you leave for vacation.
13. Recycle your Christmas Tree. Learn how

In the yard

14. Start a compost pile.
15. Put up birdfeeders, birdhouses, and birdbaths.
16. Pull weeds instead of using herbicides.
17. Use only organic fertilizers.
18. Compost your leaves and yard debris, or take them to a yard debris recycler.
19. Take extra plastic and rubber pots back to the nursery.
20. Plant short, dense shrubs close to your home's foundation to help insulate your home against cold.
21. Use mulch to conserve water in your garden.

In the car

22. Keep your car tuned up and your oil changed.
23. Carpool, if possible.
24. Use public transit whenever possible.
25. On weekends, ride your bike or walk instead.
26. Buy a car that is more fuel-efficient and produces lower emissions.
27. Recycle your engine oil.
28. Keep your tires properly inflated.
29. Keep your wheels properly aligned.
30. Save trash and dispose of it at a rest stop.

In the office

31. Recycle office and computer paper, cardboard, etc.
32. Use scrap paper for informal notes to yourself and others.
33. Print or copy on both sides of the paper.
34. Use smaller paper for smaller memos.
35. Re-use manila envelopes and file folders.
36. Use dishes, glassware and coffee cups instead of disposible dishes and cups.

At the store

37. Avoid buying food or products packaged in plastic or styrofoam containers since they cannot be recycled.
38. Think twice about buying "disposable" products. (They end up in landfills.)
39. Buy paper products instead of plastic if you must buy "disposables."
40. Buy energy-efficient appliancess.
41. Don't buy products, such as styrofoam, that are hazardous to the environment or manufactured at the expense of important habitats such as rainforests.
42. Buy locally grown food and locally made products when possible.
43. Don't buy products made from endangered animals.

In your life

44. Join a conservation organization. Browse the JustGive Guide to find an environmental organization you would like to support.
45. Volunteer your time to conservation projects.
46. Give money to conservation projects.
47. Switch to a vegetarian diet. (Raising animals for food consumes vast quantities of natural resources, including water, land, and oil; destroys habitats; and generates a tremendous amount of water and air pollution.)
48. Encourage your family, friends, and neighbors to save resources too.
49. Learn about conservation issues in your community or state. Write your legislators and let them know where you stand on the issues.
50. Teach children to respect nature and the environment. Take them on hikes or camping. Help them plant a tree or build a birdhouse.

Posted by verymerryseamstress at 08:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 07, 2007

Keeping it Green

Brian and I have been reading two very inspirational blogs lately. No Impact Man and Living Plastic Free are really showing us what people can do to save the Earth when they put their minds to it.

We've bought organic cotton shopping bags, which I frequently forget to bring with me to the store, and when I do, I actually go bagless, which is a lot better than going braless. I don't use all those individual plastic produce bags anymore and I'm shopping for items which have as little packaging as possible. One of these days, when I'm brave enough to deal with store clerks who will scold me for doing it, I will actually start taking off all that excess packaging at the store and will leave it for them to complain about. Maybe if enough people do it, store owners will complain to the manufacturing companies and they will get the message that less packaging is far more desirable. Or maybe it'll all backfire on me when every grocery store in NY dumps their excess packaging in my front yard.

We're in the midst of renovating our home, as many people know, and we're replacing some of our furniture that has been handed down and down and down and is now falling apart beyond repair. Before No Impact Man entered our lives, we were planning to buy new furniture. Not anymore. We're going to go recycled. We'll visit the local "antique" shops up and down our road (there are dozens), and while not everything is "antique," it's ALL recycled, and that's where we will be doing our furniture shoppping from now on.

But the big one - toys. We just did the first haul-out donation of toys a few weeks ago, and I was shocked at how much PLASTIC we have purchased for our kids. We want to change this. We're going to try to focus on biodegradable toys or second-hand toys. Think about it - kids actually play with toys for a very short time before they lose complete interest and replace them with a new favorite toy - most toys are barely used before they're discarded for new ones. In the span of one week I've seen fickle Elizabeth shift her adoration from Toopy, to Ty, to Doggie to Armadillo. Every time a new favorite animal comes into play, the old one is tossed aside, never to be loved again. (well, unless that animal is gone forever, and then it's grounds for a major meltdown).

We'll take her old toys and either pass them on to Adam (as we've been doing), or recycle them to friends or other kids who want them. And her "new" toys will be either biodegradable, or better yet, recycled/second/third/fourth/etc-hand. Just because something has been previously loved, doesn't make it unlovable by another kiddo. The big thing we're trying to avoid is buying any new plastic, if at all possible. It always seems that once plastic toys break, they're rendered either dangerous or useless.

We're planning on buying a small wind turbine and using it to generate electricity for the shed. If we succeed, we'll start looking at finding a new source of electricity for the house.

Even though we're making a few changes, I still feel like we're not doing nearly enough. . . .

I'm just not quite ready to give up my toilet paper.

Posted by verymerryseamstress at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)