A Merry Sustainable Christmas
On of our passion here at Digital Fabrics is sustainability and making it accessible in the fabrics industry. And it’s Christmas, so in the spirit of giving we love to share some clever ways to spread sustainability in a festive way.
Christmas Wrapping with Fabric (Furoshiki)
Image via Pintrest
In Australia alone we use more than 150,000km of wrapping paper over Christmas. That’s enough paper to wrap the planet nearly four times, which is far too much only to be discarded immediately after opening gifts! We’ve been adoring the art of Furoshiki that has been practiced in Japan for 1200 years with its distinctive style of fabric-wrapping. Furoshiki is a beautiful way to display thoughtfulness, as well as being eco-friendly. Here’s a great guide on Furoshiki wrapping. Or you might like to follow our DIY Beeswax Wrap tutorial, which is perfect for wrapping smaller presents. The terrific part about this is that the wrap can then be used to cover leftover food after Christmas lunch!
Homemade bon-bons
Image Jasmine Dowling for Etsy 2017
We love this stellar example of getting creative in a sustainable way. Christmas bon-bons are a staple at every festive lunch or dinner table. Often inside store-bought bon-bons are useless plastic toys that serve no real purpose further than a quick laugh and just create more waste each year. Jasmine Dowling crafted these adorable bon bon’s on her blog, which would work perfectly using our tea towels, doubling as a Christmas gift for everyone at the table! Alternatively, ordering 1-2m of your favourite festive fabric (hooray for small order quantities!) and carefully cut and hem to fit. Inside the paper roll you could include some essential oil rollers, home-made mini cookies or handwritten jokes to keep up with tradition. Much more thoughtful and memorable than mini dice or a nail file from typical bon-bons.
Festive Placemats with Digital Fabrics tea towels
Really elevate your Christmas table aesthetic by using our designer fabric tea towels as placemats, full of Christmas spirit and more ethical than your typical rubber placemats only to be brought out once per year. We love imagining how a classic Aussie coastal inspired Christmas table would come together with Cass Deller’s Summer Christmas fabric, paired with pretty pastel table decorations. You can find more Christmas fabric designs from Australian designers that suits your taste in our online Fabric Shop!
Or you can always go one better, ordering approximately 2.5 metres of fabric (for the average 6 seater dining table) and you’ve got a stunning tablecloth that will last for years to come. We recommend Cotton Linen fabric for the perfect billowy-ness, beautiful colour reproduction and is easy enough care.
It’s easy to feel the festive spirit this time of year and want to give extra for those you cherish. But we prompt you to consider how to translate giving ‘more’ into more thoughtfulness; for our environment, for our impact and creating lasting memories with loved ones.
Please share with us your Christmas creations on Instagram by tagging @digitalfabrics, we’d love to see them!