Recycled Ripstop Colour Woven ‘Agate’

Our Ripstop is a canvas type fabric, easily distinguishable by its crosshatch weave pattern. A medium weight cloth, and extremely strong, it is a practical and interesting choice for covering upholstered furniture, or making heavy drapes.

We are thrilled to say that our Recycled Ripstop Colour Woven fabric is woven using yarn created from recycled fibres. The fabric is a 50/50 mix of cotton and polyester, the cotton recovered from trimmings from clothing factories and the polyester fibre created from shredding down used plastic bottles. 

The waste cotton fabric recovered from the garment industry is not re-dyed before being used to create our yarn. Trimmings and off-cuts of different colours are gathered and kept separately so the original fabric colour is utilised when spinning the new yarn. This clearly requires a lot of organisation! But the benefits are huge from a sustainability perspective as it means the cotton fibre does not require another bleach and dye process which reduces the use of water and dye chemicals. 

This pre-coloured cotton fibre is then spun with dyed polyester fibre (created from the shredded plastic bottles) and the resulting yarn is ready for weaving on the loom into our cloth.

100% nylon ripstop fabric was first developed in World War II for parachute cloth, as an economical and stronger alternative to silk parachutes. Our version is heavy and cotton rich, with the criss-cross of polyester reinforcement yarns woven in at regular intervals, greatly increasing the resistance of the fabric to ripping or tearing while also providing a handsome subtle texture.

Our concept was to create a practical and utilitarian style fabric with a slightly faded and dry look, that would only look better and better the more it was used and worn, like an old heavy cotton tent or truck tarp. We encourage ‘living tough’ with this fabric, using it for loose covers that you will want to wash over and over again, as it will get even more interesting when a patina of old marks has built up, like a vintage tarp or sail cloth. Ripstop works extremely well on fixed upholstery; as-well as very heavy drapes, blinds, loose cushions and tote bags.

Proudly woven in Lancashire, England.